SAFER AG – Risk Assessment, Data, Design Standards, and Regulation: Needs and Recommendations

The 2022 SAFER AG workshop convened stakeholder groups that addressed emerging challenges related to safety, research needs, workforce implications, community-level impacts, and other issues connected to the development and eventual widespread deployment of autonomous and highly automated agricultural machines. This article summarizes the key findings, discussions, and recommendations of one of the workshop’s working groups that focused their efforts on risk assessment and the data needed to inform risk assessment processes during machine design, engineering design, safety standards, and regulatory efforts. Participants engaged in a consensus-building process to identify gaps in current knowledge and practice, particularly concerning new machine forms for which historical safety data is limited or nonexistent. The group recommended innovative solutions, including creating an exposure-based database and exposure definitions that could serve as a foundation for future risk assessment processes. Workshop participants emphasized the critical role of consensus engineering standards in ensuring the safe design of autonomous, robotic, and other highly automated equipment, with a clear sense that engineering standards must be considered early in the design phases. The group also recommended that any desired regulatory activity at various levels (local, state, national, and international) must consider the knowledge that is already embedded in pre-existing engineering standards with the hope that future regulation aligns with these standards and leverages the expertise and care that goes into the consensus standards development process. Recommendations for outreach and education efforts targeting small manufacturers, regulators, students in ABET-accredited engineering programs, and academia are also outlined.