A German scientist has tied Pastor Stephan Bernstein to a metal structure. Bernstein is wearing a blindfold and earphones to ensure he doesn't see or hear the machine that's about to punch him. Don't worry — Bernstein, a 54-year old with a thick moustache and a warm smile, is going to be fine. He's one of 15 volunteers working with researchers at the Fraunhofer IFF Institute in Magdeburg, Germany, to find out what needs to be done to ensure robots don't crush their human colleagues when working alongside each other in a factory. Collaborative robots — or cobots — need to be configured so they're aware of their fleshy colleagues and slow or stop after an unexpected collision to...
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