A humanoid robot starts swinging its arms inside an office.Another appears to surge toward a festival crowd.
In the most upsetting clip, a performing robot kicks a child in the stomach.These videos spread quickly because they hit a nerve.Humanoid robots can move with startling speed.
Once a machine loses balance or follows a faulty motion routine, nearby people have little time to react.So, what do these clips reveal about robot safety, and what needs to change before these machines move closer to the public?ROBOT SOCCER PLAYER DENTS WALL WITH TERRIFYING KICKSA humanoid robot swings toward a worker inside an office as people rush to get out of its path.(Instagram)CyberGuy Live: Missed "Sick of Spam?" Get the replay and checklistOur free CyberGuy Live class, "Sick of Spam?" , has ended, but you can still watch the full replay and download our spam-stopping checklist.
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Yet several of these clips show people standing far too close to powerful machines.In one video, workers sit beside a humanoid robot during a test.
When it suddenly starts flailing, they have only seconds to jump out of the way.In another clip, spectators crowd around a robot because everything appears under control.
Then the movement changes and that sense of safety disappears.That is what stands out to me.These robots move fast, weigh a lot and can generate real force.
Once something goes wrong, the people nearby may have very little time to react.Of course, social media videos rarely tell the whole story.
We may not know who operated the robot, what program it was running or whether...