Background

With the increasing demand for industrial robots and the “noncontact” trend, it is an appropriate point in time to examine whether risk assessments conducted for robot operations are performed effectively to identify and eliminate the risks of injury or harm to operators. This study discusses why robot accidents resulting in harm to operators occur repetitively despite implementing control measures and proposes corrective actions for risk assessments.

Methods

This study collected 369 operator-injured robot accidents in Korea over the last decade and reconstructed them into the mechanism of injury, work being undertaken, and bodily location of the injury. Then, through the techniques of Systematic Cause Analysis Technique (SCAT) and Root Cause Analysis (RCA), this study analyzed the root and direct causes of robot accidents that had occurred. Causes identified included physical hazards and complex combinations of hazards, such as psychological, organizational, and systematic errors. The requirements of risk assessments regarding robot operations were examined, and three case studies of robot-involved tasks were investigated. The three assessments presented were: camera module processing, electrical discharge machining, and a panel-flipping robot installation.

Results

After conducting RCA and comparing the three assessments, it was found that two-thirds of injury-occurring from robot accidents, causative factors included psychological and personal traits of robot operators. However, there were no evaluations of the identifications of personal aspects in the three assessment cases.

Conclusion

Therefore, it was concluded that personal factors of operators, which had been overlooked in risk assessments so far, need to be included in future risk assessments on robot operations.

中文翻译：

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工业机器人风险评估中的关键危险因素：因果分析和案例研究

背景

随着工业机器人需求的增加和“非接触”趋势，检查机器人操作风险评估是否有效，以识别和消除对操作人员造成伤害或伤害的风险是一个合适的时间点。本研究讨论了尽管实施了控制措施，但导致操作员受伤的机器人事故重复发生的原因，并提出了风险评估的纠正措施。

方法

本研究收集了过去十年在韩国发生的 369 起操作员受伤的机器人事故，并将其重构为受伤机制、正在进行的工作和受伤的身体位置。然后，通过系统原因分析技术（SCAT）和根本原因分析（RCA）技术，本研究分析了机器人事故发生的根本原因和直接原因。确定的原因包括物理危害和危害的复杂组合，例如心理、组织和系统错误。审查了有关机器人操作的风险评估要求，并研究了三个机器人参与任务的案例研究。提出的三个评估是：相机模块处理、放电加工和面板翻转机器人安装。

结果

进行 RCA 并比较三项评估后发现，三分之二的机器人事故造成的伤害，其成因包括机器人操作员的心理和个人特征。然而，在三个评估案例中，没有对个人方面的识别进行评估。

结论

因此得出结论，目前在风险评估中一直被忽视的操作员个人因素需要纳入未来机器人操作风险评估中。