Feature

Safety for robots in collaborative applications

In industrial production, smart machines have been integral to many plants for a long time. Today, original equipment manufacturers, as well as other tier suppliers, are making use of new technologies for collaborative robot applications. The challenge is to guarantee safety and minimise the chance of injury when people and machines work together.

01/09/2020 14:53:58

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Robots designed for use in collaborative applications, sometimes referred to as cobots, are expanding the possibilities of automation, as they are often easier to deploy and use. As obstacles like system interoperability are overcome, manufacturers will integrate increasing numbers
of robots. Consequently, flexible production automation will become more accessible to a larger number of businesses.

ISO 8373 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.”

Cobots are designed to work alongside humans in a ‘collaborative workspace’, an area where the robot and the human can perform tasks simultaneously. This means that, unlike more traditional machines which
are ‘caged’ by a guarding mechanism, robots used in collaborative applications often operate in the human-occupied workspace without safety fencing. However, not all ‘collaborative robots’ are guard-free, depending on their function and safety requirements. Besides the robot itself, the collaborative
robot might include an ‘end effector’, that is the tool adapted on the robot arm with which the robot performs tasks. In tandem with this new way of working, there comes new safety concerns...

Read the full article in the September issue of DPA.

Written By Sophia Bell

Sophia Bell is the Group Editor of DPA, Connectivity, and PBSI. She joined the team in 2020 as Assistant Editor after achieving a First-Class Honours BA in English Literature and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. In her current role, she leads the editorial strategy, driving digital growth and ensuring each title continues to deliver trusted, relevant insight for engineering and manufacturing professionals.