The Day the Steel Arm Moved - Industrial Robots and the Human Interface, December 1981.

The Day the Steel Arm Moved - Industrial Robots and the Human Interface, December 1981.

On December 6, 1981, Japan's first fatal accident involving an industrial robot occurred at Kawasaki Heavy Industries' Akashi Works in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture. The victim was a 35-year-old male worker. He was performing maintenance work inside the arm of an industrial robot that was supposed to be stopped when the robot suddenly activated and the arm hit him directly in the head. The worker died instantly. It was the moment when the "boundary" between man and machine was broken for the first time.

The direct cause of the accident was that the power to the robot was not completely shut off during the inspection work. The emergency stop switch had not been activated, and the robot was said to have unexpectedly become operational during the work. In addition, there were no sufficient manuals on maintenance procedures, and on-site safety training was limited to formal training. Although it was not clear what triggered the machine to resume operation, the control structure, which was not designed with the presence of humans in mind, was also considered problematic.

The media coverage of this accident had a huge impact on society, leaving the strong impression that "a robot killed a person. The following year, in 1982, the Ministry of Labor issued "Guidelines for the Safe Use of Industrial Robots. In 1983, JIS B 8433 (Safety Standard for Industrial Robots) was established, requiring the incorporation of safety features from the design stage. The standard mandated the incorporation of safety features from the design stage.

This accident is remembered not as a mere workplace tragedy, but as the first step toward a society in which people work with "moving machines" in earnest. This incident triggered a growing awareness of the dangers of robots coming into physical contact with humans and how to prepare for such contact. The current design concepts and technologies for cooperative robots that can work safely in the same space as humans, such as speed limits, contact detection, emergency stop control, and risk assessment, were formed based on the lessons learned from this accident. were formed based on the lessons learned from this accident.

The fatal accident at Kawasaki Heavy Industries in December 1981 is deeply etched in industrial history as "the day an industrial robot took a life for the first time. It was also the starting point for the maturation of robot technology to truly consider coexistence with human beings.

Related information and sources:

The Yomiuri Shimbun, December 7, 1981 morning edition, "Robot Accident Kills Worker, First Case
Ministry of Labor, Labor Standards Bureau (1982), "Guidelines for the Safe Use of Industrial Robots
Robot Safety Handbook" (Japanese Standards Association, 1984)
Japan Robot Association (1983), "Background and Explanation of JIS B 8433".