I design industrial automation equipment and have much the same feelings about those devices. I've programmed robot cells, with redundant software and hardware safety systems. I've run through the checklists to make sure the operators are SIL-3 safe with a high-speed high-power robot running just inches away through a piece of 1/4" polycarbonate - there to keep the operators out, it won't keep the robot in. I know all the engineering that goes into those systems, and that's why I will never ride a Kuka-coaster (a chair bolted to a 6-axis robot).

Also, I'm quick to reach for a simple pneumatic cylinder to solve a problem. Perfectly capable of using new electric-servo-ballscrew-hotness to do a similar move, but the value provided by tried-and-tested systems is hard to overstate.