A new study of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records reveals that there were 41 workers killed by robots between 1992 and 2017.
Researchers with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) analyzed 26 years of BLS data to identify all workplace robot-related deaths, hoping it would provide a better understanding of the hazard.
Out of the 41 robot-related fatalities, 85% of those killed were male. Most of the individuals killed, about 29%, were ages 35 to 45.
“Fatalities occurred primarily with large employers that were geographically clustered, with the Midwest accounting for 46% of the total,” according to researchers.
Most of these fatalities involved stationary robots (83%) with mobile robots accounting for 17% of the fatal incidents. Many of these incidents involved robots striking an individual while operating under their own power (78%) during maintenance of the robot, the report states.
Researches used restricted-access BLS data
The study was conducted by using a keyword search in restricted-access research files of the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for the years 1992 through 2017.
Once all of the robot-related deaths were identified, they were categorized by:
- worker characteristics
- geographic location
- type of employer, and
- type of robot involved.
‘Identifying patterns of death critical in developing safeguards’
The study highlights the growing challenges of protecting human workers who perform job tasks with help from robots.
As this technology develops, “identifying patterns of death, such as those found in this study, will be a critical part of developing safeguards, including safety standards, to protect workers.”
The patterns identified in this study “demonstrate that public health professionals will likely face significant challenges to keep pace with developments in robotics to ensure the safety and health of workers across the country.”