Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39177197›Full record

ArticleRisk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis2025

Applying the "SOTEC" framework of sociotechnical risk analysis to the development of an autonomous robot swarm for a public cloakroom.

Peter Winter, John Downer, James Wilson, Dhaminda B Abeywickrama, Suet Lee, Sabine Hauert, Shane Windsor

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Peter WinterSchool of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS), University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0766-6297
John DownerSchool of Sociology, Politics and International Studies (SPAIS), University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
James WilsonDyson Institute of Engineering & Technology, Malmesbury, UK.
Dhaminda B AbeywickramaDepartment of Computer Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Suet LeeSchool of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Sabine HauertSchool of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Shane WindsorSchool of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering, Bristol, UK.

Funding

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/V026518/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The past decade has seen efforts to develop new forms of autonomous systems with varying applications in different domains, from underwater search and rescue to clinical diagnosis. All of these applications require risk analyses, but such analyses often focus on technical sources of risk without acknowledging its wider systemic and organizational dimensions. In this article, we illustrate this deficit and a way of redressing it by offering a more systematic analysis of the sociotechnical sources of risk in an autonomous system. To this end, the article explores the development, deployment, and operation of an autonomous robot swarm for use in a public cloakroom in light of Macrae's structural, organizational, technological, epistemic, and cultural framework of sociotechnical risk. We argue that this framework provides a useful tool for capturing the complex "nontechnical" dimensions of risk in this domain that might otherwise be overlooked in the more conventional risk analyses that inform regulation and policymaking.

Indexed as

autonomous robotic swarmssafety assurancescenario analysissociotechnical risk analysisSOTEC

Identifiers

PMID39177197
PMCPMC12032379

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.