Carole Franklin is the director of standards development for robotics at A3, the Association for Advancing Automation. Her journey into robotics was not a straight path, but one that she thinks might be a familiar origin story for many people who work in the robotics field.
“I just loved reading science fiction,” Franklin told Machine Design. “And among the science fiction stories I read as a kid were Isaac Asimov’s I Robot series of stories.” She said the author’s three laws of robotics just made sense to her as a kid.
For those not familiar with those laws:
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
“When I had the opportunity to enter the automation industry, I was really excited to jump in and work in an area that involves robots,” she said. What was even more exciting for her was Annex A in the technical specification TS15066, where there are roughly 30 different body locations in which an actual experimental study was conducted to determine how much force and pressure was needed to elicit the onset of pain in human volunteers.
“Why I just was so geeked out about this,” she explained, “was because in my mind, this was actually the first time that we as humans started being able to tell robots, ‘This is something that hurts me.’ And, in fact, this is like the first baby step towards making Isaac Asimov’s first law possible.”
For now, robots are not capable of understanding that concept, she said, but Annex A is a step toward translating the human experience of pain into something that a robot can understand, which starts to make Asimov’s first law possible. “I was super excited about that,” she reflected. “When you’re designing a robot system, you have to think about, ‘how is this going to be interacting with the people around it?’ And what part of their body could be contacted by this robot arm, and then make sure that it wasn't exerting powers and forces greater than what was in Annex A.”
Franklin’s Career Journey
After earning her MBA and working in market research for an automaker, Franklin took a hiatus to raise her children, which presented its own set of challenges when she sought to re-enter the workforce. “It was really hard to get people to even look at my resume,” she said—an obstacle faced by many women after years away from work due to family commitments.
GALLERY: Meet Five Women Shaping Engineering Careers
Franklin remained connected to a former colleague who ultimately recruited her into a consulting firm—proving the power of professional networks and women’s support in the workplace. “It was a great example of women helping women,” she said. After nearly five years there, Franklin said she was embedded with a client that was a government agency with a number of different high-tech efforts going on at the time, and one of them was robotics. After working on a business process improvement and executive communications project with a robotics group there, Franklin says she heard about a job at A3 in her resident city of Ann Arbor, Mich., so she submitted her resume.
“And here we are,” she said, explaining that the string that goes through her whole career is the ability to understand technical concepts enough to be able to communicate between engineers and non-engineers on technical topics and interpret customer needs.
When asked what project she is most proud of, she said that working on the updated ISO 10218 safety standard for robotics tops the list. (Machine Design will air the interview with Franklin on this topic at the end of April). “That's just a huge, huge accomplishment for our industry, and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of it,” she said.
Encouraging Women to Enter Tech
As a woman in the robotics field, Franklin is aware of the ongoing need for diversity in the industry. “The need for experts in the robotics field is only going to grow,” she said. When asked what she would say to young women considering entering the robotics space, Franklin has this to say: “We need you, and honestly it’s a tremendous field.”
In her experience, Franklin says it really is a matter of who you know, so networking is vital for success. “It’s about meeting real people, sharing ideas and creating lasting connections that will propel your career forward,” she said, noting a woman’s unique value in a technology-driven world.
Trade shows and industry events are great places to expand your network and career resources. “If you can get involved in a trade or professional association, that will set you up for success in your career,” Franklin said, adding that LinkedIn is also a great tool to get and stay connected.
Editor’s Note: Machine Design’s WISE (Workers in Science and Engineering) hub compiles our coverage of workplace issues affecting the engineering field, in addition to contributions from equity seeking groups and subject matter experts within various subdisciplines.
