Fortschritte in Robotik und Automatisierung

Robot Safety: Overview of Risk Assessment and Reduction

Abstract

Chinniah Y

Industrial robots are found increasingly in the workplace. They can cause severe and fatal injuries to workers during interventions such as maintenance, unjamming, adjustments and set-up. This paper summarises some of the causes of accidents linked to robots. It presents risk assessment as described in international standards as a method to make workplaces involving robots safe. The operating modes in terms of safety aspects and strategies around collaborative robots are also presented. A case study involving safety of an industrial robot used as auxiliary equipment to a horizontal injection molding machine is described. Risk analysis and risk reduction measures for the case study are then summarised.