Content Description

This document specifies requirements for the inherently safe design, risk reduction measures and information for use of robots for an industrial environment.

This document addresses the robot as an incomplete machine.

This document is not applicable to the following uses and products:

—     underwater;

—     law enforcement;

—     military (defence);

—     airborne and space robots, including outer space;

—     medical robots;

—     healthcare robots;

—     prosthetics and other aids for the physically impaired;

—     service robots, which provide a service to a person and as such where the public can have access;

—     consumer products, as this is household use to which the public can have access;

—     lifting or transporting people.

NOTE 1        Requirements for robot integration and robot applications are covered in ISO 10218-2:2025.

NOTE 2        Additional hazards can be created by robot applications (e.g. welding, laser cutting, machining). These hazards are addressed during robot application design. See ISO 10218-2:2025.

This document deals with the significant hazards, hazardous situations or hazardous events when used as intended and under specified conditions of misuse which are reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer.

This document does not cover the hazards related to:

—     severe conditions (e.g. extreme climates, freezer use, strong magnetic fields) outside of manufacturer’s specifications;

—     underground use;

—     use that has hygienic requirements;

—     use in nuclear environments;

—     use in potentially explosive environments;

—     mobility when robots or manipulators are fixed to or part of driverless industrial trucks;

—     mobility when robots or manipulators are fixed to or part of mobile platforms;

—     use in environments with ionizing and non-ionizing radiation levels;

—     hazardous ionizing and non-ionizing radiation;

—     handling loads the nature of which can lead to dangerous situations (e.g. molten metals, acids/bases, radiating materials);

—     handling or lifting or transporting people;

—     when the public, all ages or non-working adults have access (e.g. service robots, consumer products).

Noise emission is generally not considered a significant hazard of the robot alone, and consequently noise is excluded from the scope of this document.

This document is not applicable to robots that are manufactured before the date of its publication.

About ISO

ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, brings global experts together to agree on the best way of doing things – for anything from making a product to managing a process. As one of the oldest non-governmental international organizations, ISO has enabled trade and cooperation between people and companies all over the world since 1946. The International Standards published by ISO serve to make lives easier, safer and better.