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Parents Upset After Their Boy Was 'Knocked Down and Run Over' By A Security Robot (abc7news.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via KGO-TV: PSA: Beware of dangerous security robots at the Stanford Shopping Center! After a young boy was "knocked down and run over" by one of the Stanford Shopping Center security robots, the boy's parents want to help prevent others from getting hurt. KGO-TV reports: "They said the machine is dangerous and fear another child will get hurt. Stanford Shopping Center's security robot stands 5' tall and weighs 300 pounds. It amuses shoppers of all ages, but last Thursday, 16-month-old Harwin Cheng had a frightening collision with the robot. 'The robot hit my son's head and he fell down facing down on the floor and the robot did not stop and it kept moving forward,' Harwin's mom Tiffany Teng said. Harwin's parents say the robot ran over his right foot, causing it to swell, but luckily the child didn't suffer any broken bones. Harwin also got a scrape on his leg from the incident." Teng said, "He was crying like crazy and he never cries. He seldom cries." They are concerned as to why the robot didn't detect Harwin. "Garage doors nowadays, we're just in a day in age where everything has some sort of a sensor," shopper Ashle Gerrard said. "Maybe they have to work out the sensors more. Maybe it stopped detecting or it could be buggy or something," shopper Ankur Sharma said. The parents said a security guard told them another child was hurt from the same robot just days before. They're hoping their story will help other parents be more careful the next time they're at the Stanford Shopping Center. The robots are designed by Knightscope and come equipped with self-navigation, infra-red cameras and microphones that can detect breaking glass to support security services.
I would expect a 16 month old to do exactly that. I wouldn't expect that his parents would be so irresponsible to allow him to do it though.
"He was crying like crazy and he never cries."
Really? A 16 month old child that never cries? I don't believe that.
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Small children can sometimes fall out of an adult's peripheral vision, if they are concentrating on what is further ahead of them rather than on what happens to be on or near ground-level of otherwise familiar territory. This has actually happened to me, and I stopped immediately, as I realized I had not seen whatever it was that I would have otherwise walked right on top of. Fortunately for me, the child was not seriously hurt, but was largely startled by what had happened, and the parents were thankfully not vindictive. Of course, this robot also stayed on its course, which may have led to injuries being more serious than if it had stopped immediately upon contact, as I did.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It was established in TFS that folks love the robot and the assumption is something like that is safe. The parent could be walking 10 feet away letting the boy check out the neato robot and he would have been run down before anyone but Bruce Lee could do anything.
Why is everybody's kneejerk reaction to blame the parent?
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My concern is why did these parents let their 16 month old child far enough away from them that it got run over by a 300 lb robot? Do they often let their toddler run unwatched (by them) in a mall full of strangers?
--- Keep the choice with the user..
We don't know the exact situation. In close conditions, the child could have been as little as one staggering jump away from veering into the robot's path. Do you expect the parents to have 50 ms reaction times 24/7 ?
The robot needs to be re-engineered. The design team screwed up pretty badly.
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You obviously don't have a toddler, and should therefore just STFU. They are fast little monsters who don't obey orders.
Or cost cutting.
For a design like that it should really have a ring of ultrasonic, infrared, camera, or similiar sensors affixed pointing around the radius of the robots tread path and set up to stop the robot if anything is projected to go under it.
It needs some of that.
Also, 16 months old is TOO YOUNG to even understand the robot is different than a garbage can. The parents are outright irresponsible in their actions.
If there is going to be a robot that interacts with children, it should be one specialized for that. Leave the security robot to do it's job. Entertain your dumb kid with something designed for kids. Hey! I know! Next take the kid to the free range pit bull farm!
That's why you leash them, silly billy!
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That is what strollers are for. You should not allow your 16 month old baby to run freely in a crowded mall, especially in todays world, and you most definitely don't allow them to run freely around a 300 pound robot not designed to be an entertainment device for children.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
Spoken as somebody who is probably not a parent.
No, should probably shouldn't let your child run amock, but allowing your kid to walk without being tethered isn't a bad thing, and normally the biggest concerns are keeping him/her away from the escalators or other major stationary hazards. That and making sure the kiddo doesn't run into people, but humans have their own collision avoidance that apparently works better than this robot.
As stated, the escalator is a static hazard. It's pretty easy to keep a child clear of such known issues.
Now if there were exposed live wires poking out from a panel at child-height or sharp exposed metal etc etc then those are *not* an expected hazard and the mall would have some liability there.
A similar rule applies to a big 300lb robot lumbering around the mall, as running over somebody should be a concern and it should probably have sensors to avoid such. I don't care if it "bumps" a kid and stops - that's reasonable behaviour - but it shouldn't continue to run over somebody's foot/leg (regardless of age). Children are especially an issue because the robot is likely going to be an attraction for curious kids.
Reality states that you CAN'T keep your child safe from all hazards all the time. Both sides need to do their best to mitigate said hazards.