Different applications fall under different safety standards

What it is

Application-specific robot safety standards are selected only after classifying the product, application, people, and environment. Industrial robots and integrated applications, driverless industrial trucks, personal-care or service robots, and medical robots do not share an interchangeable conformity route.

Why it happens

A standard's scope determines the hazards, users, and life-cycle stages it addresses. ISO 10218-1/-2:2025 cover industrial robots and their integrated applications respectively; ISO 3691-4:2023 covers driverless industrial truck systems; ISO 13482:2014 addresses specified personal-care robots while excluding industrial and medical robots. A similar-sounding but out-of-scope standard can leave public access, passenger transport, medical purpose, or operating-zone hazards unassessed.

Studying it

A traceability matrix can link intended use, foreseeable misuse, population, environment, hazard, regulation, standard clause, and verification evidence, with independent review across safety, engineering, operations, and regulatory roles. Boundary analysis of hybrid systems assigns standards to subsystems and interface hazards, tracking unowned hazards, conflicting requirements, and evidence gaps.

Where it stops holding

An international standard is technical consensus, not automatic legal authorization in every jurisdiction; edition, regional adoption, and mandatory status require verification. Machinery, electrical, functional-safety, cybersecurity, accessibility, and medical rules may apply together, beyond one robotics standard.

Applying it

• Before design freeze, define use, users, site, speed, load, contact, and maintenance modes, then identify current regulations and standards by scope.
• For hybrids such as a mobile manipulator, separate robot, vehicle, integration, and interface requirements and assign evidence ownership.
• Have independent compliance reviewers challenge inclusions and exclusions against the installed configuration rather than a supplier's category label.

Related

• Same group: X5.07.2 Certification covers a specific configuration and may be invalidated by modifications or environmental change · X5.07.3 Standards lag behind emerging human-robot collaboration scenarios · X5.07.4 Certification is a deployment floor, not a guarantee of actual safety
• Adjacent: X5.04 Limits on contact force and pressure · X5.06 Presence of vulnerable people
• Search terms: ISO 10218 · ISO 3691-4 · ISO 13482