Safety

Safety is a key goal at Willow Garage. We emphasize safety to avoid harm to any person, animal, or equipment. We also recognize that robots in general will not gain wide acceptance or fulfill their potential unless the community can adequately manage safety. You can find out more about our approach to safety in the Safety Section of the support website.

We have designed both hardware and software to minimize risks while retaining the power of an open platform. For example, when the PR2's arm encounters an object, the interaction will drive the motors back and bring the arm to a stop. The arms can't "punch through" an object the way traditional industrial robots can. You can find out more about the arms and other design features that reduce risk in the PR2 User Manual on page 10 (the section called Design Features).

Please let us know about any safety concerns or questions you have and any safety related incidents you witness. You can contact us by visiting: Reporting Safety Concerns/Incidents.

Safety is not a state that will ever be completely achieved. It is a goal for which the entire community must continually strive.