Safety factors are a key to ensuring the successful application of robots, and SEER Robotics (Shanghai) has approached the challenge of safety in four categories: functional safety, mechanical safety, electrical safety, and software safety.
In providing functional safety, SEER Robotics is committed to identifying and reducing potential risk sources to ensure that the robot can maintain a safe state—even in the event of system failures or operational errors.
During the certification process of the SRC-3000FS controller (photo above), the company received training, coaching, assessment, and certification from Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS, Geneva, Switzerland) a third-party testing and certification organization, throughout the process. Through the study of the latest international standards and the cultivation of safety concepts, safety methods and measures were introduced into the product at the design stage, and strict verification tests were carried out to ensure that all safety-related components can reliably perform their intended functions.
Some of the functional safety features include:
- Safety Emergency Stop Function: It is the most basic among all safety functions and is divided into two parts: emergency stop input and emergency stop output. The dual-loop emergency stop input/output function with diagnostic capabilities requires an external double-pole emergency stop button, and the drive needs to support the Safe Torque Off (STO) function which cuts off electrical power to the motor.
- Safety Safety Speed Monitoring Function: The movement speeds of dual-wheel differential autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and single-steering-wheel AMR, including traveling speed and rotation speed, are monitored through one or two safety encoders. When the speed exceeds the threshold, the drive and motor are controlled to make an emergency stop.
- Safety Steering Detection Function: For single-steering-wheel AMRs, the steering is related to the rudder angle direction. The left-or-right-turn steering of the AMR is judged by detecting the rudder angle direction through a safety proximity switch.
- Safety Stop-Obstacle Function: The SRC-3000FS detects the movement speed and steering information of the AMR through safety encoders and safety proximity switches, and then controls the safety laser to switch the safety protection area. When an obstacle is detected in the safety area, the drive and motor are controlled to make an emergency stop.
- Safety Limit Function: A safety proximity switch detects whether the linear movement mechanism has moved in place or has collided. Once in place, the drive and motor are controlled to stop running.
Mechanical Safety
Mechanical safety is the first line of defense against physical harm. In terms of mechanical safety, there may be collisions and crushing caused by design defects or equipment component failures, resulting in personnel and property damage. Especially for heavy-load robots, such problems are more prominent.
To ensure the mechanical safety of products, SEER Robotics not only carried out comprehensive safety plan demonstrations in the early stage, took sufficient safety measures and passed relevant certifications, but also conducted strict mechanical strength tests and aging tests to verify the stability and durability of the product under long-term use. They checked high and low temperatures, high vibration, high humidity, and high electromagnetic radiation situations.
Taking the company’s intelligent forklift as an example, the whole vehicle has passed the CE-MD certification, ensuring that it meets the highest standards of the European Union in terms of mechanical safety. This includes not only the stability and strength of the mechanical structure but also the effectiveness of various safety devices, such as navigation lasers, front-and-rear obstacle-avoidance lasers, safety edges, distance sensors, emergency stop buttons, and 3D obstacle-avoidance cameras.
Electrical Safety
Robots can have mechanical safety problems due to design defects or low reliability, lithium-battery and electricity-use safety issues, as well as battery transportation safety issues.
Based on the battery management system (BMS), battery utilization can be improved. By monitoring the real-time working state of the battery, over-charging and over-discharging of the battery can be prevented, ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the battery pack and prolonging the service life of the battery.
The main functions of BMS include:
- Battery State Monitoring: Real-time monitoring of the voltage of each battery cell, temperature, and the total voltage and total current of the entire battery pack.
- Battery Balancing: Adjusting the energy distribution among battery cells during the charging and discharging process to make all battery cells in as similar a charging and discharging state as possible.
- Thermal Management: Adjusting the temperature of the battery pack through heat dissipation or heating devices to ensure that it is within the optimal temperature range.
- Safety Protection: Setting up various protection mechanisms, such as over-voltage protection, under-voltage protection, over-current protection, short-circuit protection, etc. Once an abnormal situation is detected, evasive actions are immediately taken and an alarm is issued.
- SOC/SOH Estimation: Accurately estimating SOC (State of Charge) and SOH (State of Health) parameters to provide users with reliable endurance information.
- Communication Interface: Providing a communication interface with external devices (such as chargers, robot controllers, etc.), allowing data exchange and remote monitoring.
The module battery of SEER Robotics has obtained multiple internationally-recognized battery safety certifications, including CB, UL, and CE certifications, ensuring that the product meets strict electrical safety standards in different markets and application environments.
The battery of SEER Robotics module not only performs excellently in electrical safety, but also has been fully verified in transportation safety. It has passed the UN38.3 certification specially formulated by the United Nations for dangerous goods transportation and transportation identification tests such as air and sea transportation, including professional tests such as altitude simulation, temperature test, vibration, shock, external short-circuit, impact/crushing, over-charging, forced discharge, etc., ensuring the safety of battery transportation.
Software safety
The digital software of SEER Robotics provides multiple safeguards for the on-site safety of robots. The usability and stability of the intelligent logistics management system have been continuously optimized and enhanced. Especially in terms of fault recovery, the business process can smoothly recover from the faults and downtime of mobile robots, devices, and third-party systems, ensuring that the business is not interrupted and can be retried.
The unified resource scheduling system supports task visualization. Users can observe the execution status and progress of all tasks in real-time in the task management interface, discover faults and abnormalities early in the process, and can clearly review the details of the problems.
The visualization series products restore the real factory environment in 2D and 3D forms. Users can more intuitively gain real-time insights into the full-process status of robots. When an abnormal state occurs, the system can immediately issue an early warning and provide corresponding solutions, helping users quickly locate the problem and solve it in a timely manner, ensuring the smoothness and efficiency of the production process.
More information: https://www.seer-group.com/media/205
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