Product teams need to consider how to safely shut down humanoids in the case of an error or emergency. | Credit: This image was created by Adobe Firefly AI and modified by The Robot Report
The IEEE Humanoids Study Group was formed in June 2024 and initiated the process of evaluating the current safety standards that might impact the safe design and deployment of humanoid robots. The group’s goal is not to develop any standards, but rather to do the homework that will tee up the development of new standards, or the revision of existing standards, to cover the needs of humanoids.
Many companies are currently developing humanoids for commercial use, including Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, Figure, and many others. Agility Robotics’ Digit is widely seen as the leader in the clubhouse at the moment because actually deployed commercially with Spanx in a tote-moving application.
The group aims to complete its market research and final report within a year. Subsequently, Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) will require an additional 1-2 years to develop and ratify any new standards. Consequently, it will take a minimum of 18 to 30 months before humanoid robots can adhere to the necessary safety standards, a crucial step towards mitigating risks in their deployment. This report is planned for release in May 2025.
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The Study Group is split into two subgroups: one subgroup is actively reviewing all existing robot safety standards, while the second human-robot interaction (HRI) subgroup is evaluating all of the various use cases for humanoids.
The HRI subgroup has been tasked with determining what aspects of HRI might impact the development and application of standards when it comes to humanoids. To help the team achieve this goal, they have put together a 12-question survey, divided into three thematic sections. If you would like to contribute to the initiative, please answer as many of the questions below as possible to help determine what aspects of HRI will impact the development of robotic standards with respect to the real-world applications of humanoid robots.
Take the survey below or here.
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