If you are thinking about building a robotic workplace or automating a production line with the help of collaborative robots, it is important to answer all basic safety questions already at the project stage. 

Our safety engineers are called upon to create risk assessments or to create the logic of the functioning of automated production lines.   

We are preparing a risk assessment for robotic workplaces:  

The number and types of hazards are directly related to the nature of the automated process and the complexity of the installation. The risks associated with these hazards vary according to the type of robot used and its purpose, and how it is installed, programmed, operated and maintained.  

The list of significant hazards for robots and robot systems is the result of hazard identification and risk assessment as described in the standard ČSN EN ISO 12100 Safety of machinery - General principles for design - Risk assessment and risk reduction.  
  

Robotic workplaces are different from ordinary machines and equipment: 

What are the technical measures to reduce the risk:  

• avoiding construction hazards, or limiting them by replacing them;  
• by preventing the operator's contact with the hazard, or managing the hazard by reaching a safe state before the operator's possible contact with the hazard;  
• by reducing the risk during the intervention.  

Implementation of these principles may include:  

• designing the robot system to allow tasks to be performed outside the secure area;  
• creation of a secure and limited space;  
• creation of additional security devices if interventions occur inside the secure area.  

The type of robot, its application, and its relationship to other machines and related equipment influence the design and selection of protective measures.  

Reducing the risk caused by the robot: 

The risks identified in the risk assessment must be adequately reduced by applying the requirements of Chapter 5 of the standard ČSN EN ISO 10218-2 Robots and robotic devices - Safety requirements for industrial robots - Part 2: Robot systems and integration. If the risks are not adequately reduced, further risk reductions must be applied until the risk is adequately reduced. The requirements contained in the ČSN EN ISO 10218-2 standard are derived from the iterative process of applying risk reduction measures, in accordance with the ČSN EN ISO 12100 standard Safety of machinery - General principles for construction - Risk assessment and risk reduction, up to the hazards listed in the table A1 in Annex A of the ČSN EN ISO 10218-2 standard. 

If you are dealing with the issue of robotic workplace safety, you need to develop a risk assessment, or solve the logic of robotic workplace safety, contact us! We are a team of security technicians who understand robots and we will help you understand them too!