Six ways to build robots that do humans no harm – tech – 18 November 2008 – New Scientist.
I am not sure why this article slipped through my radar. But this article from New Scientist is a somewhat humorous listing of six ways we could build robots that do humans no harm.
It mentions the authors of the book ‘Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong’. Although this article is not a comprehensive summary of the book, it is a fun read for those of you who may have contemplated the …

Safety issues loom as humanoid invasion approaches – tech – 10 March 2010 – New Scientist.
More and more people are asking the question ‘how can we make it safe to hang out with robots in our daily life?’
In the New Scientist article, Chris Melhuish looks at how facial expressions of a humanoid can be used to make the humanoids intentions more transparent to human users, so that we would know what to expect from the robot.

I’m going to switch gears today and talk about industrial automation.
Last December, Rockwell Automation – one of the leading companies in industrial automation – released a white paper entitled “International Safety Standards Keep Pace with Advances in Robotic Technology and Applications”. This paper talks about the current robotics safety standard (ISO 10218-1 and ANSI/RIA R15.06), and the new standard (part 2 of ISO 10218, or ISO 10218-2) being drafted for release in 2011.
With a brief overview of history of robots, the paper talks about how ANSI/RIA R.15.06 adopted in 1999 …