Risk Assessment, Safeguarding & Hazardous Energy

Safety is not a robot feature; it is a property of the complete application, task, people, environment, and lifecycle. ISO 10218-1:2025 addresses industrial robots ¹; ISO 10218-2:2025 addresses integrated applications and cells ².

Assess every lifecycle task

List transport, installation, setup, teaching, automatic production, material loading, inspection, cleaning, jam clearing, tool change, maintenance, troubleshooting, recovery, modification, and decommissioning. For each, identify crushing, impact, trapping, cutting, ejection, gravity, electrical, pneumatic/hydraulic, thermal, process, ergonomic, environmental, and unexpected-behavior hazards.

Estimate severity and likelihood using the organization’s accepted method, then reduce risk:

1. eliminate or reduce hazard by design—lower energy, remove pinch geometry, limit travel, improve stability;
2. apply guards, protective devices, safety-related control functions, safe distances, and validated stopping behavior;
3. address residual risk through instructions, training, supervision, signs, and PPE.

OSHA’s robot chapter calls for application-specific risk assessment, controls, safeguards, procedures, training, and evaluation ³.

Collaborative operation

Collaborative methods can include safety-rated monitored stop, hand guiding, speed-and-separation monitoring, and power/force limiting. ISO/TS 15066 supplements collaborative application guidance ⁴. Tool, payload, fixture, contact geometry, speed, force, environment, and trapping remain part of the assessment.

Lockout/tagout

OSHA 1910.147 establishes minimum performance requirements for controlling hazardous energy during covered servicing and maintenance ⁵. Inventory electrical, gravity, spring, hydraulic, pneumatic, thermal, chemical, vacuum, and rotating energy. Shutdown commands and emergency stops are not necessarily energy isolation. Procedures must address isolate, lock/tag, dissipate or restrain, verify zero-energy state, perform work, inspect, restore, and notify under applicable rules.

Safety dossier

Create a lifecycle task-hazard matrix, risk-reduction record, safeguarding concept, safety-function list, validation plan, and energy-isolation map. Have a qualified safety professional and responsible employer review any real application; this course cannot certify a cell.