Safety, Human Work & Lifecycle Economics Package

Technical performance is one axis of the capstone. This package proves the system can be introduced responsibly.

Safety file

Include intended use and foreseeable misuse, lifecycle tasks, hazard identification, risk estimates, selected risk reductions, safety-function specification, safeguard layout, stopping assumptions, energy-isolation map, procedures, validation protocol, residual-risk communication, and applicable standards/register. OSHA’s robot manual supplies an application-oriented checklist for U.S. workplaces ¹.

Human-work design

Provide current/future task allocation, staffing and role changes, operator and maintenance journeys, interface mockups, reach/sightline/access review, workload and alarm review, training/qualification, recovery tasks, authority to stop or override, worker feedback, and job-quality measures. State what skill remains human and how it is maintained.

Lifecycle economics

Update capital, integration, facilities, internal labor, ramp, training, spares, energy, maintenance, licenses, downtime, change, and retirement. Link benefits to requirements and operational realization. Show discounted cash flow plus downside scenarios.

Cyber and data

Inventory assets and accounts; define trust boundaries, remote access, least privilege, logging, backup/restore, patch/change process, and behavior during network loss. NIST OT guidance keeps safety and reliability alongside security ².

Ethics and distribution

State who gains time, who gains workload, who bears new monitoring or recovery, how performance data could be used, what privacy is protected, and whether the design expands or narrows skill. MIT’s work research makes these institutional choices part of technology outcomes ³.

Gate 4

Pass when risk reduction is designed and testable, affected roles are prepared, lifecycle value remains plausible, recovery work is visible, and authority for residual-risk and production-release decisions is named.