Study: Robots can injure or KILL (if armed with knives)

The BBC reported today on the results of a German research study on the potential for harm to humans if exposed to stab-happy machines.

The results were shocking: people might be injured or killed.

They used a robot arm holding a variety of bladed tools programmed to strike test substances that mimic soft tissue.

In some cases, the researchers found, the robots managed to accidentally inflict wounds that would prove "lethal".

Just how did the robots manage to "accidentally inflict wounds?"

The robot arm was programmed to use the bladed tools to stab and cut a silicone lump, a leg from a dead pig and the arm of a human volunteer.

Are we to understand that the robots were programmed to accidentally stab things? I'm really having fun imagining recruiting the human volunteer: "Guten morgen! Vould you mind fery much to be accidentally stabbed by meinen roboter?"

I eagerly await the results of the robots-accidentally-shooting-people-with-guns study.