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Risk Prevention and Policy‐Making in Automatic Systems
Author(s) -
Goossens Louis H.J.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1991.tb00598.x
Subject(s) - risk analysis (engineering) , probabilistic logic , risk assessment , probabilistic risk assessment , process (computing) , production (economics) , occupational safety and health , risk management , computer science , engineering , computer security , business , artificial intelligence , medicine , economics , finance , macroeconomics , operating system , pathology
Accidents with automatic production systems are reported to be on the order of one in a hundred or thousand robot‐years, while fatal accidents are found to occur one or two orders of magnitude less frequently. Traditions in occupational safety tend to seek for safety targets in terms of zero severe accidents for automatic systems. Decision‐making requires a risk assessment balancing potential risk reduction measures and costs within the cultural environment of a production company. This paper presents a simplified procedure which acts as a decision tool. The procedure is based on a risk concept approaching prevention both in a deterministic and in a probabilistic manner. Eight accident scenarios are shown to represent the potential accident processes involving robot interactions with people. Seven prevention policies are shown to cover the accident scenarios in principle. An additional probabilistic approach may indicate which extra safety measures can be taken against what risk reduction and additional costs. The risk evaluation process aims at achieving a quantitative acceptable risk level. For that purpose, three risk evaluation methods are discussed with respect to reaching broad consensus on the safety targets.