CHAPTER 3
Safety
Building a robot is a sign of great intelligence. Retaining your health while doing so is a sign of greater intelligence.
Robotics involves a number of potentially harmful or dangerous situations. This safety chapter is meant
to introduce readers to a broad variety of concerns regarding the hobby. Now, here are a few examples of
potential dangers that may be encountered in the activities described in this book:
- Heat sources (burns, fires) during soldering and installing heat-shrink tubing
- Spark or ignition sources from batteries
- Bodily harm (cuts and so on) during drilling and cutting
- Chemical exposure in solder, solder flux, glues, and electrical components
- Eye injury during drilling, cutting, soldering, stripping, and snipping
- Inappropriate tool and component access by children
Benefiting from Age and Experience
Robotics is a great hobby to share with a parent or child. However, many of the tools, chemicals, forces,
and power associated with robotics can be dangerous. Minors should only attempt to build robots with the
assistance of an adult.
Following Instructions
Always read and follow the instructions provided with equipment and materials. A cynic would suggest the
manufacturer’s warnings are only designed to reduce the company’s liability, but that’s fine if it keeps you
out of the emergency room.
There’s an added benefit to reading the manuals: You might learn a technique that improves the
effectiveness of the tools or describes a feature you didn’t know about. Remember, the information is coming
from the experts.
If you’re fortunate enough to have access to a laboratory, hacker space, or machine shop, follow their
shop rules. The rules are designed not only to keep everyone safe, but also to protect the equipment and to
produce a high-quality product.
Keep manuals and safety sheets with their associated equipment. That way you know where to look if
you lend the tool to someone or are having difficulty using it yourself.
Reread instructions every so often. As part of my research for this book, I reread some tool manuals and
was delighted to learn some things I had either forgotten or missed on first reading.
When in doubt, ask for help.