NIOSH Office of Agriculture Safety and Health, 1090 Tusculum Ave, Cincinnati OH 45226, United States.
J Safety Res. 2023 Sep;86:92-95. doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2023.06.001. Epub 2023 Jun 12.
A variety of factors are driving the development of robotics and automation in the agriculture industry including the nature of work, workforce shortages, and a variety of economic, climatic, technologic, political, and social factors. While some new robotics and automated machines are available commercially, most are still being developed. This provides occupational safety and health researchers an unprecedented opportunity to mitigate risks and benefit the health and safety of agriculture workers.
The NIOSH Office of Agriculture Safety and Health (OASH) is working to better understand how the advancements in automation and robotics is affecting workers. OASH is coordinating with the NIOSH Center of Occupational Robotics Research (CORR) to help to increase the understanding of human/machine interactions; improve the ability to identify injuries and fatalities involving automation/ robotics; and provide guidance on working safely with automation/ robotics. OASH also joined a small team of academics and industry to organize the SAfety For Emerging Robotics and Autonomous aGriculture or (SAFER AG) Workshop to identify gaps in knowledge and research needs that connect to issues related to risks and regulations/standards, occupational safety research, and impacts on workforce and society. This workshop was sponsored by USDA NIFA.
Occupational safety and health experts need to engage and collaborate with developers of technology. It is also increasingly important for occupational safety and health researchers and practitioners to not only become familiar with existing manufacturing safety standards, but also the lengthy standards development process. Joining consensus standards groups to help shape new standards for emerging technologies may help to mitigate adverse worker impacts. NIOSH's Office of Agriculture Safety and Health will continue to identify research gaps, support new research projects, education, outreach efforts and the development of best practices with our partners.
包括工作性质、劳动力短缺以及各种经济、气候、技术、政治和社会因素在内的多种因素正在推动农业领域机器人技术和自动化的发展。虽然一些新的机器人和自动化机器已经可以在商业上使用，但大多数仍在开发中。这为职业安全与健康研究人员提供了一个前所未有的机会，以减轻风险，造福农业工人的健康和安全。
美国国家职业安全与健康研究所（NIOSH）农业安全与健康办公室（OASH）正在努力更好地了解自动化和机器人技术的进步如何影响工人。OASH 正在与 NIOSH 机器人研究中心（CORR）协调，以帮助提高对人机交互的理解；提高识别与自动化/机器人相关的伤害和死亡的能力；并提供与自动化/机器人安全工作相关的指导。OASH 还加入了一个由学者和行业组成的小团队，组织了安全新兴机器人和自主农业或（SAFER AG）研讨会，以确定与风险和法规/标准、职业安全研究以及对劳动力和社会的影响相关的知识和研究需求差距。该研讨会由美国农业部国家投资农业科技中心（NIFA）赞助。
职业安全与健康专家需要与技术开发者接触并合作。职业安全与健康研究人员和从业人员不仅要熟悉现有的制造业安全标准，而且要熟悉漫长的标准制定过程，这一点也变得越来越重要。加入共识标准组织，帮助为新兴技术制定新标准，可能有助于减轻对工人的不利影响。NIOSH 的农业安全与健康办公室将继续与合作伙伴一起确定研究差距、支持新的研究项目、教育、外展工作和最佳实践的制定。
