⚖️ The Three Laws of Robotics

From the fictional “Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.” by Isaac Asimov:

First Law

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

Architectural Implementation:

• Link as Safety Layer: Acts as a protective barrier that prevents unsafe commands from reaching hardware
• Never-blocking design: Link maintains robot safety even if higher-level systems fail
• Teleoperation priority: Human operators maintain direct control over the robot
• Fault isolation: Critical systems remain operational even when non-essential components crash

Second Law

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

Architectural Implementation:

• Teleoperation-first design: Human commands are the primary input source
• Command & Control layer: Routes and executes human operator instructions
• Direct operator interface: WebRTC, gRPC, and HTTP protocols for real-time human control
• AI as assistance: Autonomous capabilities only supplement human decision-making
• Safety override: First Law constraints prevent execution of harmful commands

Third Law

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

Architectural Implementation:

• Self-preservation systems: Robot diagnostics and health monitoring
• Graceful degradation: Nucleus can crash safely without compromising core functions
• Data preservation: Comprehensive logging ensures operational knowledge is retained
• System resilience: Multiple failure modes without total system compromise
• Maintenance awareness: Prometheus/Grafana monitoring for predictive maintenance