Integrated risk assessment and safety consideration during design of HRC workplaces

Human-Robot-Collaboration (HRC) is seen by many manufacturing enterprises as an opportunity to increase the automation level in their manufacturing without having to acquiesce in flexibility. Accordingly, many system integrators are confronted by an increasing demand for collaborative workplaces. However, system integrators are having difficulties to deliver such safe and efficient workplaces as is evident by the very low number of HRC cells in industry. This is due to the complexity of the safety standards and guidelines governing HRC, as well as the often negative impact of necessary safety measures on the key performance indicators (KPIs) of a collaborative workplace. In this paper, an iterative design method utilizing model-driven risk assessment and decision support is presented, that automatically identifies potential hazards in a workplace design and estimates the impact of necessary safety measures, with regard to the KPIs investment cost, operational cost, cycle time and flexibility.