Everyone here should be familiar with Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics.  In the event that you may have recently been afflicted by amnesia, or if you just like reading them because it gives you a warm idealistic feeling about the future of robots, here they are again:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

So far, though, these laws have not been programmed into robots. Most industrial robots work apart from humans, in factories and on assembly lines. They work with tremendous speed and deadly force to accomplish specific tasks. Because of the hazard they pose to humans, robots can’t work closely to us. And programming a robot to be more wary of nearby humans presents increased complexity in the programming, thus making it less reliable.
“You have to give the robot a way of recognizing what a human is and a way to prevent itself from hurting a human.”
The European Union, however, is funding a project to develop robots that are simple and powerful, ones that will mimic human muscle action using new movement control techniques. New sensors will give the robots a sense of where their “limbs” are. The proposed robots would also weigh less and have limb actuators for lessening the force of a strike upon impact, so they don’t hit as hard. Having humans and robots work side by side is very desirable because industrial processes that involve aspects from both entities could be performed simultaneously, thereby streamlining those processes. Programming the three laws of robotics into robots is no longer science fiction, now it becomes a vital task in advancing robots in industry and, eventually, in society as a whole.

[io9]