2017 17th International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS 2017)

Oct. 18-21, 2017, Ramada Plaza, Jeju, Korea

A study on the risk investigation and safety of personal care robots
Gi-En Yu1, Seung-Taek Hong, Ki-yeop Sung, and Joon-ho Seo4*
1
Technology and Standards Team, Korea Association of Robot industry,
Seoul, 04376, Korea (nanagi@korearobot.or.kr)
2
Technology and Standards Team, Korea Association of Robot industry,
Seoul, 04376, Korea (hst1022@korearobot.or.kr)
3
Technology and Standards Team, Korea Association of Robot industry,
Seoul, 04376, Korea (sky@korearobot.or.kr)
4
Technology and Standards Team, Korea Association of Robot industry,
Seoul, 04376, Korea (jhseo@korearobot.or.kr) * Corresponding author

Abstract: ‫ٻ‬Personal care robots are recognized for their importance as they recognize the need for interaction between
human beings and robots in non-production environments. ‫ٻ‬In this study, we collected and analyzed accident cases and
statistical data by type of domestic and overseas to utilize in order to establish App Guide and Test method before
certified based on safety requirement standard of personal care robot. ‫ٻ‬Through this research, it is aimed to summarize
the types of accidents of personal assisted robots and to use them to develop the risk assessment system.
Keywords: Service robots, Personal care robot, Types of robot accidents, Segway accidents, malfunctions, human
attacks, Mobile servent robot

1. INTRODUCTION motorized wheel(electric wheelchair, electric scooter).

Considering that the market for personal care robots
1.1 Background and Purpose of the Study is being formed at the present time, we also included
cases of malfunctions at the prototype stage.
The importance of personal caret robots is recognized
as the necessity of interaction and cooperation between 2.2 Personal care robot accident case analysis
human beings and robots in non - industrial
environment, The importance of ISO 13482 standards Domestic and foreign accident cases of personal care
and certification is also emphasized. In this study, we robots were 4 cases of mobile servant robots officially
collected and analyzed accident cases and statistical reported in the media. The phisical assistant robots were
data by type in parallel with ISO 23482-1 (app guide) investigated 4 cases of prototype stage and 4 cases of
and ISO 23482-2 (test method) standards development. person carrier robots. Respectively.
It is intended to develop the types of safety accidents for Most accident cases of mobile servant robot were
future personal caret robots and to develop emergency investigated as collision accident and trapping accident.
response procedures for the workers. The collision was mostly caused by the obstacle
1.2. Scope of research recognition sensor error of the robot. When the subject
of the accident was a child, he felt panic and anxiety,
The study focused on analyzing the characteristics of and physical damage as well as mental harm
accidents by using accidents statistics of personal care appeared(Table 1). Especially, robots are not enough to
robots and similar cases of personal care robots. push human beings when they collide with humans, but
The time range of this study begings in 2010 when there have been instances of injuries such as bruises.
the first accident case of a person carrier robot among Intermittent accidents can be attributed to the structural
types of personal care robot was reported, Similar design defects of robots, and in cases where the
accident analysis included cleaning robots, other electric accidents are children, bruises on the fingers and crying
wheelchairs, etc., which can be seen as a mirror occur(Fig. 1).
example.
Table 1 Analysing the Case of Mobile Servent Robot
2. AN ANALYSIS OF THE PERSONAL Accidents
CAREG ROBOT ACCIDENT CASES
Cause of accident Degree of damage
Type
2.1 Abstract Object Remarks Process of the accident
The collected personal care robot accident cases were Operating error Ankle injury
classified into three types as mobile servant robot, Collision Operating errorRobot 'Patty' glass
Adult China booth rushing ෍ Fragmentation of
phsical assistant robot, and person carrier robot, and visitor ankle injury
informally investigated cases of individual company Malfunction Swollen legs and abrasions
accident based on the data exposed to the media Robot K5 clashed with children ෍
formally. e of accident was divided into cause of Collision 16 month
U.S.A. passed over the top of my child ෍
child
accident, degree of damage, process of accident, etc. In dad pulls the child quickly
addition, cases of accident such as cleaning robots and A Sensor malfunction inundation

978-89-93215-13-7/17/$31.00 ⓒICROS 904

suicidal Corrosion detection algorithm
crash Self U.S.A. malfunction due to corrosion of
building brick surface
Malfunction in airport Airport staff threated
Malfunct
ion A mobile robot wraps a rod and a
Many ෍
large fabric
‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬
Twist arms‫ٻ‬ fall‫ٻ‬
Fig.2 Case of Physical Pssistant Robot Accidents

The person carrier robot has been universally

recognized by both the motorized wheel and the Segway
accident. Since the report of the death of Segway owner
in 2010, Dissemination is spreading and incidents of
attacks a person‫ٻ‬ attacks a child‫ٻ‬ accidents are increasing. Depending on the space on
which the robot is traveling, accidents with passengers
are predominant at the time of traveling, and an accident
due to a stopping power error or a sudden stopping
occurs(Table 3).
According to the Korea Consumer Agency in 2016,
there are 31 cases related to electric wheel related to the
‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬
A suicidal crash Malfunction Consumer Risk Monitoring System (CISS) for the past
3 years, most cases of injury were injuries caused by
Fig.1 Case of Mobile Servant Robot Accidents falling on the motorized wheel, resulting in 9 bruises
. and fractures, 7 consecutive concussion, and 5
The physical assistant robots have not been reported abrasions(Fig. 3).
in the media but they have suffered from irregularities,
falls, and friction in research and development Table 3 Analysing the Case of Robot Accidents
competitions. Patients who are paraplegic and crippled
by spinal cord injuries are accompanied by the risk of a Cause of accident Degree of damage
Type
concussion if they fall asleep(Table 2). If the robot Object Remarks Process of the accident
deviates from the human joint angle, fracture such as Self-explosion Destruction of facilities
Explosi
arm flexion occurs. At Cybathlon in 2016, at least one on The hover board itself explodes
Self U.S.A.
assistant workforce was needed as a burden of a in Los Angeles
physical assistant robot(Fig. 2). Operating error Arm fracture accident
Injury Hover board operation accidental
Adult U.S.A.
fall
Table 2 Analysing the Case of Robot Accidents Detection malfunction bruise
Collisi
on Athlete China bruise
Cause of accident
Type Process of the accident Out of balance injury
Object Remarks Malfun
ction Suddenly a malfunction causes a
Fall in place Passenger ෍
passenger to be injured
Fall Forcibly sit down
Wearer Cybathlon
Goch gymnastics while
Fall walking Malfunction during walking
forward
Wearer Cybathlon
Twist Joint angle deviation
Excessive folding
arms Wearer test
Falling while driving
Fall need a helping person
Wearer Cybathlon ‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬
Hover Board Explosion Hover board injury‫ٻ‬

‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬
‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬ Segway clash‫ٻ‬ Malfunction of the robot on board‫ٻ‬
fall Fall forward
Fig.3 Case of Person Carrier Robot Accidents

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2.3 Similar accident analysis
For the three types of personal assisted robots, mobile
assisted robots collected cleaning robots, and boarded
robots collected motorized wheelchair (electric
wheelchair, electric scooter) accidents as similar cases..
There were two cases of the cleaning robot accident
and the case where the robot sucked the hair of the
sleeping woman and was rescued with the help of the
rescue team and the robot sucked after sucking it
without recognizing the feces of the pet, is(Fig. 4).
case of similar accidents.
From 2011 to 2015, we have added personal travel
incidents and long-term and general insurance data from
the last five years of insured customer data.
The number of traffic accidents involving personal
transport in 2015 was 89 cases, an increase of 3.0 times
over five years compared to 30 cases in 2011. Among
them, motorized wheel ratios are not high, but they have
increased rapidly in 2015, reflecting the recent increase
in usage(Table 4).
Table 4 Analysis of Motorized wheelchair trends

Accident with car Accidents other than cars

Year Motori Electric Electric Motori
Electric Electric Sum
zed All zed All
bicycle scooter bicycle scooter
wheel wheel
2011 0 11 15 26 0 3 1 4 30
2012 0 15 27 42 2 5 3 10 52
‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬ 2013 0 13 13 26 0 17 3 20 46
Feces suction Excreta Hair suction 2014 1 18 20 39 3 14 3 20 59
2015 0 28 29 57 12 13 7 32 89
Fig.4 Cleaning robot accident case Data)‫ ٻ‬2016 Study on safety measures for new
transportation, KoROAD(2016)
The accident cases of rehabilitation robots have not
been reported in domestic media.
3. ISO 13482 STANDARDS-BASED RISK
In the case of the motorized wheelchair accidents, 31 ANALYSIS
out of 77 electric wheelchair users experienced an
3.1 Personal care robot accident cases and risk
accident and 71 out of 210 electric scooter operators
analysis
experienced an accident. Of these, 42 were the most
frequent accidents involving jaws and obstacles, Consider the typical hazard sources in ISO 13482 as a
Collision with outside obstacle such as signboard 37 cause of accident cases by personal care robots
persons, 33 people suspended from service, 25 investigated in Section 2.
collisions with vehicles, 23 collisions with pedestrians, Mobile servent robots are shown in the following
Falling due to loss of balance 13 persons‫ٻ‬11 accidents table, and child attacks are included within the human
involving accessory parts, and 9 malfunctions and fires. attack (Table 5)..
Given the similarities between the types of motorized
wheelchairs and personal carrier robots, it is necessary Table 5 Analysing the Case of Robot Accidents
to examine the case of accidents when the market of
person carrier robots is expanded in the future(Fig. 5). Case ISO 13482 standard
5.10.3 Instability during travel
Instability in case of
5.10.5
collision
Hazards due to incorrect
‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬ 5.12 autonomous decisions and
41.2%‫ٻ‬ 36.3% 32.4% 24.5% Attacks a
actions
person
Hazards due to contact with
5.13
moving components
Hazards due to lack of
‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬ ‫ٻ‬ 5.14 awareness of robots by
22.5% 12.7% 10.8% 8.8% humans
Hazards due to localization
Fig.5 Types of accidents of Motorized wheel users Robot crash 5.16
and navigation errors
Malfunction 5.3.3 Power failure or shutdown
2.4 Analysis of similar accident trends

Analysis of the accident trend of the personal Hazard analysis of the physkcal assistant robot
accident cases is as follows (Table 6).
assistant robot does not show statistics to be counted so
far, Analysis of motorized wheel related accidents in

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 Table 6 An Analysis of the Physical Assistant Robot the robot market. In this study, the study examines the
accident accident cases of personal care robots introduced at
home and abroad and analyzes the hazards with ISO
Case ISO 13482 standard 13482. Moreover, it can be reflected in the reflection
Physical stress and posture and certification system assessment of the robot design.
5.9.2 The working environment of the mobile servent robot
hazards
Fallen Instability while attaching greatly affects the risk and frequency of safety accidents.
5.10.6 or removing a restraint type Especially, even if the infant is with an adult, it is
physical assistant robot difficult to recognize children according to the height of
Physical stress and posture the sensor. To improve the safety level, the number of
5.9.2 functions of the sensors, such as increasing the number
hazards
Fracture Instability while attaching of sensors, is required.
5.10.6 or removing a restraint type The malfunction of therestraint type physical assistant
physical assistant robot robot is directly linked to the human body wearing the
robot.Therefore, it is necessary the robot needs a safety
Hazard analysis of the person carrier robot accident technique that identifies people's intentions. Also,
cases is as follows (Table 7). protection of vital parts of the body is needed.
Since the speed of a robot on a person carrier robot
Table 7 An Analysis of the Hazard of the Personal has a great influence on a safety accident, safety
Carrier Robot accident measures against accidents and crashes are important in
case of a sudden stoppage.
case ISO 13482 standard The number of accident cases and accident statistics
collected in this study is small and the time range is
Hazards due to energy
5.3 narrowed. Future development of the robotic market
storage and supply
will require various accident prediction and data
Explosion 5.10.3 Instability during travel
utilization..
Hazards due to insufficient
5.11
durability
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
5.10 Hazards due to robot motion
Crash Hazards due to contact with This work was supported by the Industrial Strategic
5.13
moving components technology development program funded by the
5.10 Hazards due to robot motion Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MI, Korea)
Instability during [10070258, De28velopment of the Certification Process
Malfunction
5.10.7 embarkation/disembarkation Platform and Verification & Validation Technology for
of a person carrier robot the Certification of Personal care robots Safety]

3.2 ISO 13482 Standard Compliance and REFERENCES

Certification
After the ISO 13482 FDIS came into force in 2013, it
has been promoting certification worldwide for the past
four years. In particular, Japan has issued the world's
first certificate through Japan Quality Assurance
Organization (JQA).
In Korea, we are also developing a test evaluation
technology and certification process integration
platform for safety certification of personal care robots
in Korea.
If the risk analysis is performed using various accident
cases from the early stage of market formation, it will
influence the market construction and market opening
of the personal care robot in the future.
4. CONCLUSION
Recently, we have been actively promoting the
establishment of a certification system for personal care
robots in Korea. Already in Japan and Europe,
certification is issued by ISO 13482, and certification
status is expected to emerge as the primary variable in
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