Ep. #25: Robotics and Automated Machine Safety

from the source features Jeff Bowser, a regional Manager with right hike Garding. He discusses how an influx of robotics You're listening to Right from the Source, Expert Insights on Safety, Security, productivity, energy savings, and environmental control. Your industrial or commercial food.

Hello listeners, this is Right from the Source, and today's guest we have Jeff Bowser from Right Height. Jeff, welcome to Right from the Source. Thank you. It's good to be here. So first Jeff, give us your title and just some background on yourself, years in the industry, how long you've been with Right Height, uh that kind of fun stuff. I've been with Right Height uh specifically in the machine guarding division.

I've been with uh the company for twenty-three years and uh my focus within Wright Height is uh down in the machine guarding division, we focus and concentrate. industrial safety doors that are used in automation environments around robotics. So we're we're out there trying to keep people safe with uh the products that we manufacture. And what was your title again, Jeff? Uh I'm a regional integrator accountant

Outside of work, any hobbies or passions? Like many others, I enjoy time with my family and friends, but I suppose if I would to uh pick out a specific hobby, it's it's actually cooking in the kitchen. I like to uh experiment making different dishes. entertaining family and friends with those and hopefully sometimes the flavors work out and sometimes they don't, but I give it my best

Well, I'm sure during the pandemic it's been a little difficult, not maybe having as many people over as you would have liked, but we'll get back to it at some point. Hopefully. Very cool. And today is a a virtual podcast obviously. Where are you coming in from? So I'm based in uh St. Louis, Missouri. I live specifically in Baldwin and uh I've been here for about eighteen years. I grew up in Ohio. moved out here chasing my wife many, many years ago. So now hail from St. Louis and call it all.

So today's topic, we're gonna get into robotics and automated machine safety. So our first question for you today, Jeff, is That there's been a significant rise in the use of robotics across a variety of industries in the last decade. And according to the International Federation of Robotics, More than three million robots were in operation across the globe in twenty twenty, which is double the one and a half million in twenty fourteen, just six years earlier.

Not to mention, the IFR estimates that forty two percent of the increase is represented by robots in the material handling industry. So our question for you is what does this mean for business? We continue to see an acceleration of the use of of robots in a lot of different industries. from manufacturing, production to material handling. And we see this because robots bring productivity to the table. At the end of the day, robots are able to do heavy lifting tasks.

They're able to do precision tasks and they do these tasks repeatedly without break. You bring in a a human factor that human beings they get tired, they need breaks, they take vacations. They call in sick. We've seen issues with a pandemic of available personnel on factory floors. And so robots bring productivity to the table in that they are able to operate, perform tasks difficult um repeatedly.

maybe even mundane tasks over and over. So the ability to do that brings increased output and, you know, production to the table for companies that are trying to increase their output. There's ergonomic benefits as well. Humans get tired and They have, you know, limited strength. So from the standpoint of a robot being able to come in and do those tasks without tired, what have you brings kind of an ergonomic benefit to the table. So

What you see is a growing population of robots and with that uh you see a growing need for safety and that's where right height machine guarding comes in. Around those robots, industrial robots, big and small, we need to protect the workers, make sure they're safe. So That's kind of where the safety aspect comes in. We want to make sure that people are going home to their families, staying safe, and limiting exposure to happen.

Let's get into some of those safety specifics. What kinds of regulations are applicable to many of these worker robot interactions that you're kind of talking about? There are many uh guidelines to follow. We look towards the RIA fifteen oh six. It's a standard that most companies have to adhere to. And it really kind of encompasses all the different aspects of how to keep people safe around robotics, industrial automation. The specific standard is the R fifteen oh six.

And there's also a an emerging or developing standard 1508, and that has more to do with mobile robots. We'll maybe touch on that in a second. But the fifteen oh six, one of the primary drivers of that or requirements of that is a risk association. So when companies are using robots to produce goods or move goods You have to take into consideration different variables that are in play.

And those variables include uh size and speed of the robot, its working envelope, how often the operator would need to interface or interact With that robot? A good example might be an operator that maybe has a metal part that they need to load into a fixture, and then the robot would maybe come in and do some sort of welding process. Once that process is over, the robot would then retreat.

And the operator would then have to collect that material. So when a risk assessment is in play, they're really looking at all aspects of how to keep that operator safe.

while basically working or feeding that robot in that same area. The 1508 standard that I mentioned is uh kind of an emerging and developing standard, and this has to do more with mobile robots, which are ground-based robots that are moving materials from point A to point B, and that's really kind of we see that as a huge growth inside the arena of robots.

As it relates to some of the common safety practices that deal with robotic operations. Can you talk about some of the options that exist now in the industry and and maybe where we might be heading? Sure. The the fruits of the risk assessment is is obviously uh stipulation that you're keeping people safe. Some of the products that are commonly used are light curtains and area scanners.

These are present sensing devices, if you will. They use infrared technology and basically create safe zones around these moving robots and automation. They're fantastic products. But they do have limitations, some limitations. One specifically to speak to is that they have to comply with the distance form. And the distance formula is basically a calculation of area that an operator or human personnel would have to be away from the point of operation.

And so what you have is in in a situation where you're using a light burden or area scanner, you've got valuable floor space that is basically devoured by the space needed to keep those people away from that moving machine. And that zone is basically a safe zone where the operator would in essence have to physically cover that zone and get into that automation before that automation would come to a full stop.

So that is one of the drawbacks of light currents and area scanners. Like I said, they're fantastic products, but they do require compliance with the design. In addition, there's a lot of other hazards going on other than the point of operation maybe coming into contact with moving machine or a robot. And these are secondary hazards that also have to be taken into consideration.

Flying debris, fume, smoke, particulate, all of these other hazards are not able to be contained by light curtains and air scan. Right height solution takes a little bit of a different approach. We manufacture automated doors and barriers. Our Defender Barrier Door is a fantastic product and what that does is it really brings the same level of safety to the table. It can be interlocked to the machinery and wired up to a category four level. We view automated barrier doors like the Defender.

as an alternative solution that really covers all bases. Not only does it separate man from machine, but it reduces the footprint or the needed area of that machinery because that door can be placed much closer to the automated That is because there's a lack of a depth factor at that.

So our solution really kind of complies with the uh regulations of as far as what level of safety is required, but it also serves as a true physical barrier in the in the fact that it controls all of the other secondary hazards that might be in play. fume, flying debris, mist, particulate, welding flash, what have you. So the defender barrier door really serves to, like I said, cover all bases, not only separate man from machine, but contain and control the hazards associated with the water.

So for our final question here today, I'd love you to talk a little bit about collaborative robots or cobots and uh which safety regulations are going to apply in these newer kinds of applications. Sure. Collaborative robots or cobots as we call'em, are are really kind of a growing technology that's really uh taking shape. Accelerating. The ISO T S fifteen oh six six

is a uh guideline that these new kind of technology robots are are coming into. And when we talk about a collaborative or a cobot, what does that mean? And it in essence it is basically a a robot that is working in unison or conjunction with in the same area. as a human operator or a human personnel. I mentioned that this is a quickly growing kind of sector of the robotic field. I believe the first cobot was uh Yumi back in 2015. By 2017, three percent of all robots out there.

Cobots are collaborative robots. And uh it's estimated by twenty twenty five that a full one third of all robots in North America to be in the kind of collaborative robotic field. So I mentioned the ISO TS fifteen oh six six and it really kind of points to a few guidelines The first is I guess you could say a a safety monitored stop.

So in essence, you know, these these robots, they have these cobots I should say, they have the ability to what we call see, or really it's kinda sense what's going on in their environment. So the kind of the safety monitored stop is basically a function where if a human personnel comes into a defined area around that robot, that robot knows that. It senses that. So that that robot would in essence come to a stop.

Uh there's also an aspect where the cobots are basically hand-guided, where human hand is actually controlling the exact movements of the robot. And we see applications for this in the medical field. We see applications, industrial applications from precision and finite applications such as gluing, labeling, material transfer, pick and place, uh what have

Another aspect of that standard is speed and separation. And this is where it kind of gets pretty interesting in the fact that let's say you have a cobot doing a function, a human personnel maybe begins to approach that robot as that person gets closer, that robot gets slower. Uh so almost dancing to a certain degree. The closer you get, the slower the robot gets, the further you move away, the faster the robot is basically prob programmed and able to move. And so

In essence, what that does is it creates a situation where you get so close to the robot that it is basically frozen or stop by the time you get to it. So what that does is it allows people and robots to basically work Side by side in conjunction with each other to perform a a a certain task.

Another aspect of that standard is kind of power and force payload limitations. Basically you want to make sure that if for some reason there were an accident, that the payload involved in that is not so great that there's going to basically some sort of harm to human personnel. So as we see this kind of expanding arena of cobots, these collaborative robots,

Certainly it might reduce in some industries the demand for barriers that we promote and provide to our customers, but at the same time it also opens up other opportunities. I mean these these robots, they're very expensive pieces of machinery and they themselves need to be protected. So as uh products are being uh you know, raw materials are being brought in, moved around these robots, we see uh opportunities opening up for you know for our products, for our doors and physical barriers.

To uh keep people safe and also keep those very valuable company assets safe in the and the robots themselves. Is there anything as it relates? to robotics and the uh any kind of automation solutions around robotics that we miss that you'd like to talk about here? Yeah, I I would say this with the increased use of robotics.

You look at it and you say, well, wait a minute, robots are doing more and more of the work. What's that do for jobs? Well, what we see is where maybe a shift in the workforce population, if you will, less people might be doing kind of a maybe a repeated or a menial task of welding. And so those jobs might be uh sacrificed. But at the same time, uh that also produces or provides opportunities for technicians, robot programmers, mechanical and electrical engineers.

We basically design the work envelope and these environments. So uh where we might lose some jobs be robot populations doing those tasks. We also see opportunities for jobs uh keep maintenance on, program those robots. I mean, as you have a growing field and population of robots, they need to be taken care of and the skilled positions and the technology behind that is required to keep that population of robots moving, running Full time as they uh do their job.

That's a an excellent point, Jeff. Absolutely the opposite side of the coin of that, because I'm sure there are many people who worry about, you know, job loss there with robots taking over. But I don't think we're gonna have a terminator situation here. We still need people to take care of the robots. That's right. I can't, you know, never say never, far off into the future, maybe so, but maybe not while on.

Well, Jeff, um that does it for our time today. We appreciate your expertise and your time to sit down with us today and and uh cover this uh very impactful topic as the use of robotics continues to rise across North America and the world. Again, I appreciate your time and I appreciate the opportunity. For those of you listening, be sure to follow RightHeight on all social media platforms and visit right.com for additional information or connect with a team member.

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