EXPERTISE / ROBOT SOFTWARE

Robot Safety Engineering

Safety works best when it shapes the robot early. We help you turn risks, standards and operating conditions into a practical architecture, working control software and the evidence needed for market entry.

Explore the approach ↓
AI-generated illustration of a male pilot operating an inspection drone near a power line.
01 / THE OPPORTUNITY

Make safety part of what the robot can do

A robot's value comes from doing useful work around people, equipment and changing conditions. Bringing safety into the design early gives the team room to shape that behaviour, rather than add restrictions at the end. Three things need to work together:

  • Start with the robot's real job. Intended use, operating conditions and foreseeable hazards define the safety requirements. The right architecture depends on where the robot works and how people interact with it.
  • Give each layer a clear responsibility. Cameras and AI can support useful behaviour, while protective functions need an appropriate sensing and control chain. Keeping those responsibilities distinct lets the team develop the autonomy without blurring the safety boundary.
  • Build evidence as the design evolves. Requirements, implementation and verification need to stay connected. Traceable decisions and repeatable scenarios give the assessment process something concrete to examine.

That is an opportunity to design safety and performance together, with clear boundaries between useful robot behaviour and the functions that protect people and equipment.

02 / HOW WE SOLVE IT

Design safety and performance together

We work with your engineering and safety teams from the operating scenario through to verification:

three-stage safety engineering workflow in the shared expertise style
  1. Clarify the operating scenario. We map the relevant standards, hazards and assumptions with you, then turn them into requirements for the robot and its environment.
  2. Build a layered safety concept. We define the responsibilities of protective sensing and logic, supervisory monitoring and the autonomy stack. Where appropriate, the functional software can request degraded modes - slow down, reroute or hold - before a protective stop is required.
  3. Implement and verify. We integrate the safety concept into motion, control and monitoring software, then create the traceability, simulation scenarios and field-test protocol that support the assessment.

The goal is a safety concept your team can implement and explain, with clear responsibilities and evidence tied to the robot's intended use.

03 / IN PRACTICE

In practice: scoping perception-based safety for intralogistics vehicles

front view of an empty AGV forklift with camera and safety scanner between the forks; user-provided case image

Situation. A German AGV builder was adding intelligent load-handling attachments and needed to establish which load-monitoring functions could reach the required performance level.

What we did. We scoped the use of 3D cameras versus simple sensors, what had to be proven about the sensor chain, and how to keep safety-rated and non-rated functions on separate code paths.

Outcome. The team knew which safety functions to investigate and what they needed to prove about the sensors and software.

Also: The work addressed the boundary between perception used for functional behaviour and perception proposed for a protective function.

In practice: shared control for power-line inspection drones

inspection drone flying beside a power-line pylon; user-provided case image

Situation. An electric grid operator needed to inspect pylons for corrosion and damage, a task that otherwise involved people working at height near high-voltage lines.

What we did. We combined vision and GPS for positioning, with path planning and constraint-based control to inspect the pylon while maintaining separation from the structure and wires. Shared control let the operator guide the drone within those boundaries.

Outcome. An inspector could carry out an autonomous or semi-autonomous inspection from the ground.

Also: Communication fallback supported operator takeover. Our separate drone-show work has included multi-channel emergency stop, health monitoring and autonomous safety motions. Read the pylon inspection case.

04 / WHAT YOU GET

What you get

safety requirements, safety architecture and verification evidence
  • A standards and risk-assessment starting point tied to your robot and intended use.
  • A safety architecture with clear responsibilities for hardware, control and monitoring software.
  • Implemented safety-related software and practical degraded modes where appropriate.
  • Verification evidence: scenarios, a traceability matrix and documentation for your assessment process.

Engagement: feasibility study → development → support.

05 / FURTHER READING

Learn more from our blog

Real-Time Robotics: Before you start

Robotics systems rely heavily on sensors to provide accurate information about the environment and the robot itself. However, sensors are not perfect and often suffer from inaccuracies due to various factors. In this first Part, we dive into getting the basics right.

  • real-time
  • controls
  • kalman-filter
Read more
06 / YOUR NEXT STEP

"Which standards apply to your robot, and what will it take?" Book a safety assessment