What remains difficult?
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Safety has to survive ordinary disruption
NIOSH identifies hazards including unexpected contact, crushing and electrical risks. Working near people can introduce additional hazards and stress. A robot that reduces one dangerous task can create a different risk elsewhere. [8]
Reliability is more than a successful attempt
NIST highlights the importance of measurement, data, safety, cost and productive output. [2] Our assessment is that buyers need to examine failures and recovery alongside successes: changed lighting, damaged objects or a blocked route can expose weaknesses a polished demonstration hides.
Questions a responsible deployment should answer
Who can stop the machine? What happens if a sensor or network fails? Which actions require human approval? Who reviews incidents and software changes? How are cameras, workplace data and remote access protected? These are evaluation questions, not claims that every system has the same safeguards.
Watch evidence, not just announcements
Look for repeated results across sites, disclosed human interventions, safe recovery, useful output and total operating cost. Ask whether workers received training and whether measured benefits persisted after the pilot.
This section combines agency evidence [2, 8] with explicitly identified editorial evaluation criteria. It is not a technical safety standard or deployment approval.