When “Steve the security guard robot” fell in a pool this week and effectively short-circuited, his death was joked about, as was he.

Though people were of course tongue-in-cheek in their response, with even the makers of the security robot writing an obituary-like press release, this incident surfaces interesting observations about how humans and robots interact.

Is there a small part of us that wants to see robots falter? That takes pleasure in seeing the failures of this rising technology that’s supposed to be smarter than us?

Looking at the situation of the K5 robot from the lens of a roboticist, I see the robot’s swim as a common mistake that humans make all the time – depth measurement. Imagine walking down the street, do you know the depth of each puddle you encounter? Have you ever miscalculated and found yourself shin deep and wet?

I am not an engineer of this particular robot, but looking at the situation, you see that the water is as high as the stairs going into the pool. Even if the robot used an infared sensor or camera to detect water, it may not understand the depth of the water. And because this robot weighs over 300 pounds, once its equilibrium is lost, it is very difficult to re-balance and avoid a topple.

Making a mistake is not an indication that the system is stupid or that the robot revolution is suddenly on hold. Think of all the mistakes we as humans make every day, and that’s after having essentially been ‘programmed’ for millions of years. I have seen a friend step into a pool with my own eyes. I swear he is neither stupid nor a suicidal human.

It’s a fact that today, robots’ potential is not yet met, and that often times their glory and their utility is over-hyped. So how do we improve this situation? Instead of celebrating their mistakes and laughing, how do we make robots better?

My belief is that people need more access to robotics, to programming and exploring on robotics. Today, people can’t simply pick up a robot and program unique or useful functionality like they can do with a mobile app or game. With robotics, it’s more expensive and more technically challenging to access both the hardware and the software involved.

Only when we lower the barrier to entry in robotics and make learning and exploring on robotics accessible, will we see robots that can perhaps do a better job of avoiding being knee-deep in that puddle like you and me and Steve.