Safety in the industrial robot environment – part 1

Very important links in logistically configured production lines in many branches of industry are packing and unpacking machines, also called palletizers and depalletizers. These devices are classified as industrial robots, which can be defined as automatically controlled, reprogrammable, and multi-purpose (allowing for great flexibility of application) manipulation machines with several degrees of freedom, fixed or mobile, intended for the automation of industrial processes [1]. Reprogrammability here is understood as the ability to programmatically change their movements

and functions without material modifications (mechanical construction and control system). Industrial robots very often are part of so-called robotic systems, which, besides the robot itself (hardware plus software), also include: additional working elements, devices, and sensors enabling or facilitating work, and a communication interface interacting with and monitoring the robot’s operation.

The operational parameters of robots are generally significantly different from the parameters of other machines and their equipment. This results, among other things, from the fact that robots are capable of performing movements with high energy and in a large space outside their base.