A growing share of new industrial robots, including the latest humanoids and mobile units, are being designed explicitly for safe operation alongside people, with sensors and behaviours meant to avoid collisions and stop quickly. Earlier industrial robots were often caged off from workers for safety; machines that can share space with people can be deployed far more flexibly.
Safe human-robot collaboration widens where automation is practical, because not every task can be walled off from staff.
What it means: the value of a robot depends partly on where it can safely go. When evaluating any automation for a workplace with people present, treat its safety design and certifications as a core feature, not fine print, because a machine that can work near your staff is useful in far more places than one that cannot.