Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA
Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA

Test Benches

© Fraunhofer IPA

How can the safety of a robot actually be evaluated and rated? How can this be done without any risk or practical effort on the part of the company itself? For many safety standards, practical tests need to be carried out in order to identify risks and validate the effectiveness of safety measures. Especially when it comes to mobile and service robots, only a few companies offer this service. For this reason, Fraunhofer IPA develops test benches to compare and test the safety and performance of stationary and mobile robots.

We provide you with our test environments or develop and expand them to suit your application. In doing so, we tailor tests to your individual needs.

The corresponding counselling and evaluation of the tests complete the offer.

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  • Safety issues related to stationary robots mostly concern the topic of human-robot collaboration (HRC). To implement robot applications in compliance with standards where contact with humans cannot be ruled out, collision loads must always be kept below the limits specified in ISO/TS 15066.

    With the aid of a high-quality, certified measuring device, the researchers at Fraunhofer IPA can calculate collision loads via standard measurements with a real robot and thus obtain reliable data for safe implementation.

  • Whether in commercial or private environments, the safety of mobile robots has to be proved from various aspects. For instance:

    • How well can the robot navigate on different surfaces and what is its braking distance?
    • How stable is it crossing thresholds or moving on slopes?
    • How reliably can it recognize objects, even under different lighting conditions such as daylight or artificial light?
    • How well can it detect and avoid obstacles?

    The mobile robot test bench makes it possible to systematically evaluate and, if necessary, compare these criteria. Among other things, it has different surfaces, ramps and thresholds as well as a test setup with different lighting conditions for assessing how well objects are recognized. If desired, the test bench can be extended to meet specific customer requirements.

    Reference project: ARAIG – Autonomous robots for assistive functions: basic interactive skills