Smart Manufacturing

CASE STUDY 8Five Highly Dangerous Jobs That Robots Can Do Safely

Alex Owen-Hill

Some jobs are just too dangerous for human workers to carry out safely. Robots are increasingly used to improve the safety of those workers who would usually perform these tough and dangerous tasks. Discussed here are five highly dangerous jobs that robots can do safely without unnecessarily risking humans’ lives and health.

When selecting potential tasks for robotic automation, a common rule of thumb within industrial settings is to ask how well the task aligns with the criteria of the “4 D's of Industry” (this is an extension of the original “3 D's of Industry,”¹ revised to include cost).

These four D's are:

1. Dull. The task is not mentally stimulating for a human, such as loading dozens of identical parts onto a conveyor.
2. Dirty. The task is dirty or messy. This can be unpleasant for humans and the cleanup adds extra work.
3. Dangerous. The task is actively dangerous for a human to perform. What constitutes “danger” is the focus of this chapter.
4. Dear. The task is more expensive when performed by a human, usually unnecessarily expensive, such as paying a person for a whole day's work for them to only perform the mindless task of arranging products on trays.

Ideal applications for the use of robots will match all four criteria. However, even if a task meets only one of the criteria, it can be a good candidate for robotic automation.

The criterion that is probably most easily understood by industrial ...