ISO 13482 - the new safety standard for personal care robots

In the future, personal care robots will work in close interaction with humans. This poses a great challenge to the manufacturers of such robots who have to ensure the safety of their systems. Up to now, only general safety standards for machines were available and the lack of a specialized safety standard with detailed requirements has resulted in uncertainty and a relatively high residual risk for manufacturers. This situation is changed with the publication of ISO 13482, a safety standard for personal care robots. This paper gives an overview about the contents of the new safety standard and the expected effects for service robot manufacturers and the way, personal care robots will be developed in the future. The scope of the standard and its application in the risk assessment process is described. Special focus lies on the aspect of intended close-interaction and contact between human and robot, and the possibility to validate that all safety requirements have been met.