Industry 4.0 / smart FactorIes
RoBoTIC SafETy
By Stewart Robinson MIET MInstMC, principal engineer and functional safety expert at TÜV SÜD, a global product testing and certification organisation.
I
n our increasingly automated world, robots are used in an ever-growing number of applications and industries. they have
become a vital part of any modern industrial facility and while they are largely deployed in the production of goods, they can also be found in construction, healthcare and service industries. Innovations continue to drive market growth through improvements in the user experience, commercial agility and financial affordability. as the rise of human-robot collaboration
expands the possibilities of automation, industry will integrate increasing numbers of robots factory-wide. the importance of meeting strict standards is therefore becoming even more critical for suppliers, who must be sure that their equipment satisfies market entry requirements first time, as well as system integrators and end-users who must be assured that their equipment is safe. ensuring the overall safety of a robotic solution
is an extensive exercise as robot technology draws on several technical disciplines. the increased need for adequate protection of people from the safety risks associated with industrial robot systems led to the development of en Iso 10218:2011 - “robots and robotic devices - safety requirements for industrial robots”. this is an international and european standard which covers the safety requirements for industrial robots. Iso 8373 – “robots and robotic devices —
Vocabulary” - defines an industrial robot as: “an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications.”
an ever-increasing number of manufacturing
and logistics processes are now fully automated, and often assisted by industrial robots and automated guided vehicles (aGVs/amrs). With their enhanced capabilities, robots can be the key to innovative processes and new services. depending on the task and the selected solution, a robot can work in collaboration with the user, or work completely autonomously. safety is of the highest priority when humans
and robots are working side by side. consequently, robot manufacturers are faced with a broad set of safety requirements, as reflected in numerous technical guidelines and standards. to ensure reliable performance and safety, manufacturers, suppliers, integrators and operators must assess and validate robot compliance against a range of different standards, as well as considering application- specific requirements. For example, combinations of aGVs or amrs with collaborative robots (cobots) necessitate particularly stringent safety requirements.
CollaBoRaTIVE applICaTIonS cobot systems can combine manual and automated assembly operations to form a hybrid system, thereby uniting the strengths of humans and robots. If wisely deployed, cobots can increase process efficiencies and product quality, as well as relieve humans from physically exhausting and repetitive work. In its 2020 report summary, the International Federation of robotics stated that: “there are still many “4d” (dull, dirty, dangerous and/or delicate) tasks that could be done by robots, improving worker health, safety and job satisfaction."
While en Iso 10218 contains some guidance on
the use of collaborative robots, with the rapid pace of technological development, it was widely acknowledged that this needed to be enhanced. consequently, Iso/ts 15066 – “robots and robotics – collaborative robots” was published in 2016. a barrier-free environment where the safety of the employee is always guaranteed is a basic requirement for a collaborative application and the technical specification should be followed.
Iso/ts 15066 covers: the design of the collaborative workspace the design of the collaborative operation methods of collaborative working
changing between: collaborative/non-collaborative different methods of collaboration
operator controls for different applications the methods of collaborative working ‘speed
and separation monitoring’ and ‘power and force limiting’ are particularly elaborated on in Iso/ts 15066. this includes recommendations for ‘biomechanical limits’ of pain thresholds for specific parts of the human body. risk assessment according to en Iso 12100 can also be used to define the safety requirements for collaborative industrial robot applications and their working environment. an essential component of a cobot application is the robot end effector. obviously, it is not possible
8 october 2021 | Factory&HandLInGsoLutIons
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