The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has published new guidelines to ensure the safety of human workers in collaborative robotic systems.
ISO created the ‘Safety Requirements for Industrial Robots’ standard to help integrators of robotic cells conduct risk assessments when installing collaborative robots.
ISO/TS 15066 describes the different collaborative concepts and details the requirements to achieve these. In addition to design and risk assessment requirements, it also presents a research study on pain thresholds versus robot speed, pressure and impact for specific body parts.
Collaborative robot maker, Universal Robots, which was part of the committee drafting the ISO/TS 15066 specifications, said it sees the new document is a solid foundation for future work in this area.
Universal Robots’ Global Compliance Officer, Lasse Kieffer, a member of the ISO committee that developed ISO/TS 15066 said: "When the last revision of the ISO 10218 standards came out back in 2011, they were focused on traditional industrial robots. Collaborative robots were still a new technology and not addressed in detail.
“We are pleased that the industry with ISO/TS 15066 now has received additional published specifications to guide the implementation of cobots operating safely with humans.”
CTO of Universal Robots, Esben Østergaard, said the company's robots feature adjustable safety functions to comply with these guidelines.
The patented safety system its robots features eight adjustable safety functions - joint positions and speeds, TCP positions, tool orientation, speed and force, as well as the momentum and power of the robot.
“ISO/TS 15066 represents the consensus reached between member countries on an emerging technology," Østergaard said.
"We acknowledge that the world needs a conservative approach towards robot safety, but there is still a lot of ongoing research on safe human-robot interactions and how to define practical guidelines in order to unleash the full potential of collaborative robots.
"We look forward to following this work as it evolves."
