Introducing a Morphological Box for an Extended Risk Assessment of Human-Robot Work Systems Considering Prospective System Modifications

The concept of human-machine collaboration is regarded as key enabler for agile production systems as collaborative robots offer new forms of flexibility. Due to inherent safety functionalities, these robots can operate without physically separating safety devices and thus provide flexibility in task allocation and execution. However, changes on the work system require a new risk assessment due to the present normative regulations, which is a tedious task as feasible changes are usually not considered in the implementation phase. This paper presents the impact of modifications on collaborative robotic cells and how they influence the risk assessment. Furthermore, a method of considering work system variants based on desired future modifications is presented so that implications can be already identified in an early design phase of the system.