Just lately, there was a broadly publicized incident the place a chess robotic system broke the finger of a seven-year-old little one at a event in Moscow. This could by no means have occurred. The robotic was not one in all our cobots, however we do really feel compelled to remark as a result of this robotic chess software does NOT replicate regular security requirements and well-accepted practices throughout the robotics sector.
The best way this incident was reported can distort understanding of robotics software security. An official of the Russian chess federation implied that the incident occurred as a result of the kid ‘violated’ security guidelines. That is totally unreasonable!
Robotic system integrators ought to carry out a threat evaluation
It’s globally accepted that robotic system integrator ought to carry out a threat evaluation for the meant use and readily foreseeable misuses. If this had been finished, quite a few modifications would have been carried out together with a gentle gripper as a substitute of 1 with onerous edges and using security sensors solely permitting motion when nobody was close by. It was moderately foreseeable that the human chess participant could be concentrating on the sport, not their robotic opponent.
Automation security is about “making the simple strategy to work, the protected strategy to work”. On this case, all chess motions want to have the ability to be carried out and not using a particular person needing to assume “am I okay to maneuver my chess piece or will I be injured?”.
The expertise exists to forestall incidents like this from occurring
Energy and power restricted (PFL) collaborative robots (cobots) would cease shifting after contact with an individual. Expertise of this sort is available. Following the appliance threat evaluation’s necessities, tens of hundreds of cobots are working safely alongside people on daily basis. The truth is, cobots are more and more utilized in schooling settings to show programming and the event of robotic purposes.
Security requirements are established internationally and independently licensed
All respected robotic producers and integrators embrace their accountability of delivering protected merchandise and options. At Common Robots, our e-Sequence robots are licensed to EN ISO 13849-1 and EN ISO 10218-1 by TÜV Nord. The cobots embrace 17 superior configurable security features licensed by TÜV Nord as PLd Cat 3. This implies they’ve configurable stopping time and stopping distance, joint place limits, pose restrict, software orientation restrict, security planes, security boundaries, protected dwelling, power limiting (TCP) and elbow security (power, pace, boundary restriction).
The protected deployment of cobots can carry large societal advantages
This chess taking part in robotic integrator displays badly upon the hundreds of automation professionals that take security very significantly. The world continues to face labor shortages. Robotics and automation can present an important and well timed answer and can even make workplaces significantly better environments for people to work in. However these alternatives will solely be totally realized when security is a precedence in software deployment.
