Safety in industrial applications: From fixed fences to direct interaction

Human-Robot-Cooperation will allow leveraging the capabilities of human and robot better through direct interaction, but requires new methods to ensure the safety of the worker. The article introduces a new methodology for the safety assessment in robotics by analyzing the collision risk of a robot. The concept for passive safety assessment, i.e. the approach to consider the collision potential of a robot system for analyzing its danger potential is presented. A test-setup to parameterize and validate models is presented. The test-setup can also be used for the verification of robot system installations with respect to adequate safety criteria.