The age of robots helping humans around the house may not be so far away, but will it be safe? Three researchers from the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German aerospace agency studied how dangerous robots could be to humans if they helped with everyday domestic tasks.Their findings are a bit alarming. In some cases, when the robot arm used sharp tools like knives or scissors near substances that mimic soft tissue, the arm managed to accidentally inflict potentially lethal wounds! However, potential injuries were reduced when the prototype collision detection system, created by the researchers, was switched on. The results of the robot safety tests were presented recently at the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Alaska.