ROBOTICS

Research

Priorities

NIOSH has identified several priorities to address knowledge gaps related to robotics and worker safety and health. These priorities include:

• Robot-related incident surveillance and hazard analyses
  There is a need to expand occupational injury surveillance capabilities to better identify, monitor, and characterize robot-related injuries.

• Robot incident risk factors
  Robot-related incidents occur as a result of complex interactions of risk factors. These factors can be characterized as personal, environmental, and task-related. Systematic studies of risk factors, current control measures, and knowledge gaps are needed to understand why and how robots impact worker safety and health.

• Research, design, and evaluation of safety interventions
  Evidence-based intervention design and evaluation is critical to building effective and cost-efficient countermeasures for robot-related workplace hazards.

• Robot safety implementation
  Implementation priorities include: research on new robot intervention technologies and controls; legal, ethical, social, economic, and environmental issues in the translation of robot safety research to practice; and workplace use of evidence-based resources.

• Robot-related safety communications
  Communicating about safe robot use with partners, stakeholders and industry is critical to worker safety. Communication priorities include: development of guidance and safety education products, dissemination strategies, and evaluation.

Current Projects

Mining

NIOSH is studying robotics technologies in mining that seeks to keep workers safe on the job.  A brief description of our research is provided below.

• Mine Rescue Support Machine: Developing a machine to support rescue team safety during the response to catastrophic events
• Sensor Technologies: Studying sensor technologies that lend to automation and the removal of workers from work hazards
• Proximity Detection Systems: Developing guidelines for use in the design and implementation of proximity technology for mobile haulage equipment in underground mining