Application Safety

Cobot Safety Overview

Cobots are designed to work alongside people. They are designed so that they will not inflict harm. When a Cobot is operated within its safety limits, the whole of it's workspace can be safe.

The objective of collaborative robots is to combine the repetitive performance of robots with the individual skills and ability of people. People have an excellent capability for solving imprecise exercises; robots exhibit precision, power and endurance. To achieve safety, robotic applications traditionally exclude operator access to the operations area while the robot is active. Therefore, a variety of operations requiring human intervention often cannot be automated using traditional robot systems.

In such operations, the integrity of the safety-related control system is of major importance, particularly when process parameters such as speed and force are being controlled.

A comprehensive risk assessment is required to assess not only the robot system itself, but also the environment in which it is placed, i.e. the workplace. When implementing applications in which people and robot systems collaborate, ergonomic advantages can also result, e.g. improvements of worker posture.

Safety Documentation:

ISO/TS 15066:2016 specifies safety requirements for collaborative industrial robot systems and the work environment, and supplements the requirements and guidance on collaborative industrial robot operation given in ISO 10218‑1 and ISO 10218‑2.

ISO/TS 15066:2016 applies to industrial robot systems as described in ISO 10218‑1 and ISO 10218‑2. It does not apply to non-industrial robots, although the safety principles presented can be useful to other areas of robotics.