The workshop on the Safety for Using Industrial Robots held by the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association (TAIROA) that follows the commission of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Ministry of Labor (OSHA). This workshop was held at GIS Taichung Xinwuri Convention Center on October 20. The experts from the foreign and domestic famous enterprises and certification bodies in the safety design, manufacturing, and certification of industrial robots are invited to be speakers in the workshop. These speakers has shared their views of the solutions for the safety of industrial robots, the application of collaborative technologies, and the safety certification standard for robots and application field. This workshop aims at helping the enterprises to strengthen their abilities in the identification, assessment, and control of the hazards of operation with industrial robots in order to upgrade industrial safety and strengthen the capacity in disaster prevention.

The statement from OSHA, in the wake of the declining labor population and the advancement of smart manufacturing technologies, the manufacturing sector emerged as the principal user of industrial robots in Taiwan. Industrial robots are mainly applied to manufacturing electronic products, electrical products, motor vehicles and automotive parts, machinery, and metal pieces. There are about 80,000 industrial robots in service within the industries of Taiwan at present. Being the prevalence of the man-robot collaborative field has caused a breakthrough to the safe distance limit between robots and workers. The physical barrier is incrementally replaced by safety detection devices. As such, the safe interactions between collaborative robots (cobots) and workers emerged as an issue confronting us and dictating for solutions.

In responding to the new trend of man-robot collaboration in the industries, the Ministry of Labor has amended the “Standard for the Prevention of Hazards from Industrial Robots” in 2018, and also announced the “Collaborative Robots Safety Assessment Guideline” to bolster safety at the workplace. In response to the challenges brought about by industrial robots and the advocacy of Industry 4.0, the International Standardization Organization (ISO) established related ISO standards to demand safety in using regular industrial robots and cobots. Taiwan will translate these ISO standards into national standards (CNS) in an attempt to implement risk assessment at the design and manufacturing stage, and introduce safety and protection policies to the idea of essential safety of machinery in design. We wish that could improve technical, knowledge and experience sharing and exchange among the design, manufacturing, and accreditation entities through this workshop and continue to assist the enterprise in strengthening the capacity in disaster prevention.