A study of safety and production problems and safety strategies associated with industrial robot systems

Abstract

XI 1 1In the light of these aims, several objectives were formulated: (a) The consideration of previous literature on robot hazards and guidance on safe robot use, to gain an understanding of the area, in preparation for the analysis of empirical data.(b) The consideration of previous studies of production and reliability of relevance to a study of robot systems, to provide typical figures for production problems and reliability.(c) The collection and analysis of data on safety and production problems associated with several representative robot production systems in industry.(d) The study of the safety strategies adopted in each robot production system, identifying the elements of each strategy.(e) The derivation of conclusions on major problem areas, on the difficulties and on conditions for effectiveness of safety strategies.These aims and objectives provide the focus for the thesis.Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the technology of industrial robots.It describes robots in terms of their elements and classifies them according to the categories of elements that are in widespread use.The design of robot production systems is also described.The current use of industrial robots is discussed to show the areas of application commonly found for industrial robots.Production reliability research relevant to industrial robots concludes this chapter.Chapter 2 deals with the background literature for health and safety at work.The context of health and safety at work is described with reference to the legislation, overall philosophy and controlling bodies.Safety research is also presented to show the pattern, causes and influencing factors of accidents.A summary of a framework for the management of safety strategies concludes this chapter.Chapter 3 presents the literature on the benefits and hazards of industrial robot use.Authoritative statements on robot hazards are discussed and are supported by a number of previous surveys of accidents with industrial robot systems.The guidance provided in the literature on safe robot use is then presented.Chapter 4 describes the background to the empirical study under taken for the research.The aims and objectives of the study are described and propositions for the collection and analysis of data are provided and the data collection methods are outlined.