CLAWAR and Robot standardisation and regulation

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CLAWAR Association is actively supporting international robot standardisation as this is a major bottleneck preventing the widening of robot application and hindering the creation of new robot markets. The absence of international safety standards for service robots in particular is a serious issue which led to CLAWAR identifying the need in 2002 when it existed as an EC Network of Excellence for Climbing and walking robots. Through its network of partners it was instrumental in bringing the matter to the attention of ISO TC 184/SC2 (Robots and robotic devices) responsible for robot standardisation and to the creation of several new ISO/ IEC robot standardisation groups since 2006 to formulate the needed standards.

The international groups are:

  1. ISO TC184/SC2/WG1: Robot vocabulary and characteristics
  2. ISO TC184/SC2/WG3: Industrial robots
  3. ISO TC184/SC2/WG7: Personal care robot safety
  4. ISO TC184/SC2/WG8: Service robots
  5. IEC SC62A & ISO TC184/SC2/WG9 Medical electrical equipment and system using robotic technology
  6. ISO TC184/SC2/WG10: Modularity for service robots
  7. IEC SC62AD& ISO TC184/SC2/WG35 Medical robots for surgery
  8. IEC SC62AD& ISO TC184/SC2/WG36: Medical robots for rehabilitation
  9. ISO TC199/ SG1 Safety data for human-machine interactions

While some national work groups are:

  • UK: AMT/2 Robots and robotic devices is developing BS8611 (Guide to the ethical design and application of robots and robotic systems)
  • USA: ASTM Committee F45 Driverless Automatic Industrial vehicles

Specifically, the ISO WP7 working group involved in developing ISO 13482 comprised around 50 robot experts from 14 countries (China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA) who have been working tirelessly since then to develop an acceptable strategy for moving the community forward in this new area of robotics. Three CLAWAR Trustees have participated and contributed to the development of the standard, namely Gurvinder Virk (as convener), Osman Tokhi (from UK), and Suengbin Moon (from South Korea). With the publication of ISO 13482, we now have an international robot safety standard which provides the regulatory framework to use for ensuring safety under close human-robot interactions in a variety of personal care robot applications.

More Information

New ISO 13482 robot safety standard published [pdf]
ASTM International Committee F45 on Driverless Automatic Industrial Vehicles [pdf]
Caring Robots
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