Dual Safety System

Safety First

We have gone to great lengths to ensure that our solution is safe for use in busy industrial environments, with multiple safety protocols and features built into the design. Our robot features a Dual Safety System: A sensor-based “hard safety” package will provide the obstacle avoidance ensuring that humans and objects in the proximity are safe, while a novel “soft safety” package of intuitively recognizable intention markers will ensure that humans feel safe by unambiguously clarifying the robot’s next move. In addition, the robot comes with 4 safety features in accordance with ISO 13849-1.

Hard Safety

Our robots are designed according to the European Machine Directive (MD) and are CE marked, meaning the robot can be used without risk if the instructions are followed. The robot safety system follows the basic safety standard (ISO 12100).

The robot features state-of-the-art SIL2-certified radar sensors, the most dependable safety sensor for combined indoor and outdoor driving. The radar works in any weather and lighting conditions, can measure several objects simultaneously and have a response time of less than 100ms for optimal safety. Our solution is certified DS/EN ISO 3691-4:2020 and R15.08-1-2020 compliant at Performance Level D. When an obstacle is detected in the robot’s planned path, it can either stop and give a warning to the operator, or if possible, move around the obstacle.

Additionally, the robot has 4 safety functions according to ISO 13849-1:

Brake validation, meaning that the robot engages the brakes and stop if power is lost
Bumper bars which remove the power to motor control, brake and maintain stop
Detection of manually triggered brake meaning that the robot cannot move in automatic mode (or the robot goes into e-stop)
Emergency stop which removes the power to motor control

Soft Safety

To instantly make our robots’ intent apparent to people close by, we have developed the ground-breaking new concept of intuitively recognizable intention markers. A similar but inadequate concept is known from other vehicles such as motorcycles or cars that use sound and turn signals.

Because mobile robots are often compared to cars, it is assumed that these markers will be sufficient. However, markers equipped in cars are primarily designed to communicate with other drivers in a unilateral domain, and even here, light indicators are often inadequate.

Communication in traffic, especially regarding cyclists and pedestrians, is greatly dependent on eye contact and body language. When the human, capable of adding this extra information, is removed from the interaction, there is no one to make you feel acknowledged, and that diminishes the feeling of safety. Therefore, we believe that it is crucial that our outdoor mobile robots can provide this otherwise missing information.

Our intention markers provide a soft safety measure that both improves user experience and increases safety, even for people meeting the robots for the first time.

your next step

Please contact us if you have a question, or book a demo if you want Capra to come to you.