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FS 2016 – Collaborative Robots
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P a g e
Necessary enhancements
While
EN ISO 10218
already contained some guidance on the use of collaborative robots,
with the rapid pace of technological development, it was widely acknowledged that this
guidance needed to be enhanced.
Consequently, a Technical Specification (
ISO/TS 15066 Robots and robotic devices —
Safety requirements for industrial robots - Collaborative operation
) was published in 2016
to deal specifically with this situation. The document is a Technical Specification, as more
application knowledge is needed before publishing a finalised collaborative robot standard.
ISO/TS 15066 covers:
•
The design of the collaborative work space
•
The design of the collaborative operation
o
minimum separation distance and maximum robot speed
o
Static (worst case) or dynamic (continuously computed) limit values
o
Safety-rated sensing capabilities
o
Ergonomics
•
Methods of collaborative working
o
Safety-rated monitored stop
o
Hand-guiding
o
Speed and separation monitoring
o
Power and force limiting (biomechanical criteria!)
•
Changing between
o
Collaborative/non-collaborative
o
Different methods of collaboration
•
Operator controls for different applications
The methods of collaborative working ‘speed and separation monitoring’ and ‘power and
force limiting’ are particularly elaborated on in ISO/TS 15066. This includes
recommendations for ‘biomechanical limits’ of pain thresholds for specific parts of the human
body.