Scoping an industry safety standard for robots in health and social care

Perhaps the most important feature of any robot is that it is safe. When we think about robots that might help us with everyday tasks in our homes, this means that not only is the robot technically safe but also it must be safe in terms of the advice, assistance and care it provides. In particular, we want any care services that use robots to meet exactly the same standards that we would expect if humans alone were providing that care.

While there are British and international standards that define how any factory robot should be constructed and how it should operate in technical terms, there are no such standards related to the nature and quality of the care that it can help to provide.