ISO/TS 15066 — Cobot Safety Standard Guide

What is ISO/TS 15066 — Cobot Safety Standard Guide?

ISO/TS 15066 is an international technical specification that extends ISO 10218 to detail safe operation of collaborative robots (cobots). Crucially, it defines biomechanical force and pressure thresholds humans can tolerate without injury — the empirical basis for safe cobot design.

How It Works

ISO/TS 15066 lays out four collaborative-operation modes (safety-monitored stop, hand-guiding, speed-and-separation monitoring, power-and-force limiting). For power-and-force limiting it specifies force (N) and pressure (N/cm²) limits per body region — face, neck, torso, arms — for both transient and quasi-static contact. Cobot manufacturers and integrators must demonstrate, via risk assessment and instrumented dummies (the Kolling-instrumented dummy is standard), that contact stays below those thresholds.

Real-World Example

Universal Robots, ABB YuMi, FANUC CRX, and Doosan all certify their cobots against ISO/TS 15066. Indian system integrators (Addverb, Difacto) must perform 15066 risk assessments before deploying cobots in factories.

Why It Matters for Robotics

Without ISO/TS 15066, cobot deployments would be legally and ethically risky. It is the document every robotics-safety engineer must know. Indian factories deploying cobots increasingly require integrators to deliver a 15066-compliant report.

Try It Yourself

Download the ISO/TS 15066 standard (around US$200) and read the body-region force tables — you'll be surprised at how low the face/neck limits are. Then watch any UR cobot safety-stop demo and you'll understand why those gentle stops are mandatory.

Quick Quiz

🧠
Quick Quiz
3 questions
1.ISO/TS 15066 governs:
A.Industrial robot fencing only
B.Safe cobot operation, including force/pressure limits on humans
C.GPS satellite navigation
D.Soundproofing
2.Number of collaborative-operation modes defined by ISO/TS 15066:
A.One
B.Four
C.Twenty
D.Zero
3.Power-and-force limiting requires the cobot to:
A.Move faster on contact
B.Stay below body-region biomechanical limits during contact
C.Light up red lights only
D.Play music

Further Reading

• Iso 10218
• Collaborative Robot Safety
• Cobot
• Robot Safety

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