New Safety Standard Addresses Integration of Industrial Mobile Robots

As the use of mobile robots continues to surge in industrial settings, the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) has unveiled the second installment of its flagship safety standard for industrial mobile robots (IMRs), providing guidance on safe integration practices for these systems. The new standard, R15.08-2, the American National Standard for Industrial Mobile Robots (IMRs) - Safety Requirements – Part 2: Requirements for IMR system(s) and IMR application(s), provides safety requirements for deploying IMR systems into an industrial environment. R15.08-2 specifies requirements for integrating, configuring and customizing an IMR or fleet of IMRs into a site.

“With the rapid development of mobile robot capabilities, it’s more important than ever for the safety of human workers to have common safety requirements and expectations for IMR systems and system integrations,” says Carole Franklin, director of robotic standards development at A3. “R15.08 Part 2 is much-needed guidance toward ensuring safe integration practices for IMRs and will be a solid foundation for future work in this area.”

With IMRs becoming increasingly prevalent in industrial settings, A3 first established common safety requirements to guide IMR manufacturers, with R15.08 Part 1 (ANSI/RIA R15.08-1-2020) published in late 2020. R15.08-2 now follows with requirements for system integrators.

The standard covers: