Make:

and the a software glitch banged his head on the floor several times.

Oooo health and Safety would have fit is they saw this. it's a No No. Industrially all robot machines must be guarded and interlocked to keep the soft public away from the hard machines.

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Dude, seriously, get a helmet.

At least there's a thick white line to keep all the spectators safe.

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MrH: Yep, that's what makes it fun. All those silly nanny-state regs have taken the fun out of life. The way I see it, if you're strapping yourself to a gi-normous robot arm, you either A) have already taken into account the implications for serious injury should things not go as planned and tested the system appropriately, or B) are too stupid to be strapping yourself to aformentioned arm to begin with.

I'd take a wild gess that if these guys have access to this kind of hardware, they're more likely to be in group A than group B anyhow.

In addition to this, I would also like to take this opportunity to simply say "ME FIRST, ME FIRST!!!!!!11" Thank you.

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I can't believe he didn't throw up. If I were on there the most entertaining thing about watching would be taking bets on how far my vomit made it outside the white line.

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What a country. We can put men on the moon. We can put men on robots...

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Wow is that dangerous! A glitch is software, hardware, taller rider, heavier rider, loose bolt, etc could have killed that guy so quickly. At around the 6 second mark that guy would have had the top of his head ground off if he was just a bit taller.

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Isn't disney world or six flags doing something like this because I think I've seen this on the discovery channel at some amusement park show.

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Yep, you are correct. It has been at a few conventions right now only showing the capabilities of the ride. Their version has a ride for four people. For obvious reasons, their's also has much more safety precautions. I am not sure who is actually going to have the ride though.

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From a FANUC Robotics internal staff memo, Wednesday February 7th:

Please be advised that a FANUC robot has been featured in a series of videos called "Robot Ride" which are now playing on many places on the internet, including Google Video. The videos depict a FANUC robot carrying a person like a roller coaster ride. FANUC Robotics was not aware of this video prior to its appearance on Google. The video is an abuse of a FANUC robot - it appears to violate many RIA safety standards, and there is no safety protection for any of the people "riding" the robot. FANUC Robotics does not approve of this video and action has been taken to locate the individuals who are responsible. If you receive any questions or comments regarding this video, please direct them to (full name) in the Legal Department at (phone extension).

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the folks from fanuk are just wanting a ride! or do they question the capability of their own product? have ridden this several times and watched others and not once did anyone meet with a stationary object. not shown are those riders that did wear a helmet!!! agreed, our civil liberties are most precious, what few we have left!!! if you want to play it safe keep the goods in your pants and in your own home! ciao

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the folks from fanuk are just wanting a ride! or do they question the capability of their own product? have ridden this several times and watched others and not once did anyone meet with a stationary object. not shown are those riders that did wear a helmet!!! agreed, our civil liberties are most precious, what few we have left!!! if you want to play it safe keep the goods in your pants and in your own home! ciao

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Here's the uhh "proper" robot arm ride:

http://www.kuka.com/usa/en/products/systems/robocoaster/start.htm

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I once saw a robot arm very much like this one knock a maintinance mans 400 lb rolling tool box across the foundry floor because it was just a little too far inside the "danger radious" that was painted on the floor. That robot was used to unload parts from a large die-cast machine and had an increadible amount of power.
Anyone stupid enough to strap themselves on to one of these things for a joy ride desearves to have their head used for a mop.
BTW, is that the guys kids sitting there watching him almost get killed?!?

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I saw this video and it sickened me. Robots of this size are usually run behind locked cages and with safety limit switches to kill the power to the robot if it is swung out of its parameters. Most places would not run the robot at that high a speed also. These robots are used to help keep people safe in many jobs that used to be more dangerous.
Like picking parts from a diecast machine. Whats worse is how close the children and spectators were to this machine. A mechanical failure with no safety cage could have led tragically to the deaths of the dumb ass in the chair and the innocent children. The people who thinks this is all in good fun only think this because they are ignorant at how dangerous this stunt actually was.

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