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Robots

Safe co-operation between human beings and robots

Collaborative industrial robots are complex machines which work hand in hand with human beings. In a shared work process, they support and relieve the human operator. To date, the use of robots has required guards in order to protect persons present in the robot's working space reliably against exposure to mechanical impact and therefore injury caused by parts of the robot moving at high speed.

Since, when collaborative robots are used, guards are no longer in place for certain working/collaboration spaces, other technical protective measures must be employed. These measures must continually identify and, through the robot's control system, minimize the collision risks.

From the perspective of occupational health and safety, it is important that the used protective devices react correctly and in time. All relevant external influences must be taken into account during validation. This applies in particular to industrial security aspects.

https://www.dguv.de/ifa/fachinfos/kollaborierende-roboter/index-2.jsp

Autonomous driving machines

The number of autonomously driving machines such as automated guided vehicles or service robots is increasing in (industrial) areas where pedestrians are also present. Due to this, the number of interactions between humans and machines is also increasing. In addition, these machines usually have wireless interfaces such as W-LAN or Bluetooth by which the machines can be addressed. These wireless connections must be protected against unauthorized access so that no attack can be carried out on a machine or a network.

https://www.suva.ch/fr-CH/materiel/fiche-thematique/vehicules-de-transport-autoguides-agv-suva

Contact

Christian Werner
Institute for Research and Testing of the German Social Accident Insurance
Sankt Augustin, Germany

Christian.Werner(at)dguv.de

Members of the Project Group
News
April 2024

Webinars on "Digital manufacturing Research results from occupational safety and health"

How can artificial intelligence support the safety inspection of machines? What does the increasing digitalization of human-machine interaction mean…

Read more
Digital integration in machines and process industry

July 7th, 2023, Rome

Proceedings of the seminar

Emerging risks in industry 4.0

Innovative approaches for safety and security
Nov. 25th, 2019, Rome

Proceedings of the seminar

Publications

  • Fact Sheet No. 4 published: Carry out updates safely: indispensable even in small businesses!
    DE PDF 2nd issue, 03/2023 / EN PDF 1st issue, 07/2022
  • Fact Sheet No. 3: Shut the Door against Cyber Attacks on Small Businesses
    DE PDF 2nd issue, 03/2023 / EN PDF 1st issue, 10/2020
  • Fact Sheet No. 2: Safe Passwords in Small Enterprises
    DE PDF 2nd issue, 03/2023 / EN PDF 1st issue, 07/2022
  • Fact Sheet No. 1: Cyber Security in Small Enterprises
    DE PDF 2nd issue, 03/2023 / EN PDF 1st issue, 09/2019
  • Safety in additive manufacturing. Powder bed fusion/sintering
    EN Summary
    IT PDF
  • Digital transformation of technical systems with explosion risk
    DE PDF / EN PDF (English summary)
  • Digital manufacturing – challenges for occupational safety and health (OSH) due to digital transformation
    EN PDF
  • Occupational safety and health in the new digital world - XXI World Congress on Safety & Health at Work 2017 - Proceedings
    EN PDF
  • Digitisation of Production: General Targets of Cyberattacks and Prevention Strategy
    EN PDF