GCRI · Technology
Spatial intelligenceObservations, models and their uncertainty in one view
Robotics and automation design machines that sense, decide and act in physical environments. They are used in manufacturing, logistics, inspection and disaster response, and change patterns of operational risk and labour. Advanced Industry and Robotics stewards this page for the Nexus Consortium.
motion planning; control system design; perception and sensor fusion; human-robot interaction design; simulation-based testing; functional safety analysis.
robot telemetry; industrial control system logs; simulation environments; incident and near-miss records; test track and field trial data.
Systems are validated through simulation, staged field trials and conformance to functional safety standards. Operational monitoring checks performance after deployment.
Robots may behave unpredictably in unstructured environments not covered by testing. Interaction with people raises safety and liability questions.
Automation can reduce human exposure to hazardous tasks and speed recovery operations. It also concentrates dependence on software, sensors and supply chains.
| Reference | What it sets |
|---|---|
| ISO 10218 | Industrial robot safety |
| IEC 61508 | Functional safety |
| ANSI/UL 4600 | Safety cases for autonomous products |
| IFR World Robotics | Statistics on installed robots |
Robots and autonomous systems reduce some hazards and introduce others: software faults, sensor misperception, and failures that occur across a fleet simultaneously because every unit runs the same code. Assessment combines functional safety with fleet-level analysis.
Advanced Industry and Robotics stewards robotics and automation: it keeps this description current and reviews how the method is applied across the platforms.
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