Risk assessment tools for industrial human-robot collaboration: Novel approaches and practical needs

Abstract

According to the standard ISO 10218–2, industrial robot systems must be subjected to a risk assessment prior to commissioning. In current industrial practice, risk assessments are conducted on the basis of experience, expert knowledge, and simple tools such as checklists. However, the recent trend towards human-robot collaboration (HRC) significantly increases the complexity of robot systems and makes risk assessment more challenging. In response to this challenge, the scientific community has proposed various new tools and methods to support risk assessment of HRC applications. As of yet, only few of these novel approaches have found their way into industrial practice. In this paper, we review literature on novel approaches to HRC risk assessment. Furthermore, we evaluate interviews with professionals from the field of HRC to explore needs of industrial practitioners. We compare our findings from literature review and interviews, and discuss which challenges need to be addressed to successfully transfer novel approaches into industrial practice.