Industrial Robots and Robot System Safety

Industrial Robots and Robot System Safety

Industrial robots are programmable multifunctional mechanical devices designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions to perform a variety of tasks. An industrial robot system includes not only industrial robots but also any devices and/or sensors required for the robot to perform its tasks as well as sequencing or monitoring communication interfaces.

Robots are generally used to perform unsafe, hazardous, highly repetitive, and unpleasant tasks. They have many different functions such as material handling, assembly, arc welding, resistance welding, machine tool load and unload functions, painting, spraying, etc. See  Appendix IV:4-1 for common definitions. Most robots are set up for an operation by the teach-and-repeat technique. In this mode, a trained operator (programmer) typically uses a portable control device (a teach pendant) to teach a robot its task manually. Robot speeds during these programming sessions are slow.

This instruction includes safety considerations necessary to operate the robot properly and use it automatically in conjunction with other peripheral equipment. This instruction applies to fixed industrial robots and robot systems only. See  Appendix IV:4-2 for the systems that are excluded.

A.    Accidents: Past Studies

1.     Studies in Sweden and Japan indicate that many robot accidents do not occur under normal operating conditions but, instead during programming, program touch-up or refinement, maintenance, repair, testing, setup, or adjustment. During many of these operations the operator, programmer, or corrective maintenance worker may temporarily be within the robot's working envelope where unintended operations could result in injuries.

2.       Typical accidents have included the following:

^§    A robot's arm functioned erratically during a programming sequence and struck the operator.

^§    A materials handling robot operator entered a robot's work envelope during operations and was pinned between the back end of the robot and a safety pole.

^§    A fellow employee accidentally tripped the power switch while a maintenance worker was servicing an assembly robot. The robot's arm struck the maintenance worker's hand.

B.     Robot Safeguarding

The proper selection of an effective robotic safeguarding system should be based upon a hazard analysis of the robot system's use, programming, and maintenance operations. Among the factors to be considered are the tasks a robot will be programmed to perform, start-up and command or programming procedures, environmental conditions, location and installation requirements, possible human errors, scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, possible robot and system malfunctions, normal mode of operation, and all personnel functions and duties.

An effective safeguarding system protects not only operators but also engineers, programmers, maintenance personnel, and any others who work on or with robot systems and could be exposed to hazards associated with a robot's operation. A combination of safeguarding methods may be used. Redundancy and backup systems are especially recommended, particularly if a robot or robot system is operating in hazardous conditions or handling hazardous materials. The safeguarding devices employed should not themselves constitute or act as a hazard or curtail necessary vision or viewing by attending human operators.