Dynamic safety system for collaboration of operators and industrial robots

Abstract

There is an increasing need to have a safety system, which allows safe collaboration of operators and industrial robots. Industrial robots are powerful and therefore dangerous impacts and crashes need to be prevented by keeping safe distance between moving robot and the operator. Safe distance can be achieved by monitoring the position and speed of the robot and the position of the operator. Separation distance, speeds and performance of the control system, sensors and actuators are regulated by standards, which must be followed. VTT has developed a dynamic safety system, which monitors the speed and separation between persons and the robot in order to keep the stopping distance of the robot small enough to avoid impacts. The dynamic safety system enables safe continuous working beside the robot and automated restarting after a safety-rated monitored stop. An assistance system is applied to switch safety modes of the robot according to separation distance. Configuring and validating the safety system are safety-critical and time-consuming phases of design. Therefore, a configuration tool is required to get a coherent configuration, which support validation process.

Keywords

• safeguarding
• protective device
• speed and separation monitoring
• requirements