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iso ts 15066

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Type
  • Class
Resource
  • urn:ngm:class:iso-ts-15066
Domain
  • robotics
Status
  • stable
Maturity
  • established
Quality
  • 0.73
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Generated
  • by: process:vault-migrate/1.0 · at: 2026-09-22T12:41:39.024503178Z
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Label
  • ISO TS 15066
Links
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    • urn:visionflow:page:0a56cb72486c6c24ac15bedab8d31a009c94daab8c3195d5f156523141bc11c5
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    ISO/TS 15066:2016 is an ISO Technical Specification that supplements ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2 by providing detailed guidance and biomechanical data for the safety of collaborative robot applications in which industrial robots and human workers share a common workspace without a physical separating guard. It defines four collaboration modes — safety-rated monitored stop, hand guiding, speed and separation monitoring, and power and force limiting — along with body-part-specific pain thresholds that govern permissible contact forces and pressures for 29 anatomical regions. The specification is a foundational reference for cobot risk assessment, CE marking under the EU Machinery Directive, and the basis for evolving ISO 10218-3 work within ISO TC 299.

    Overview

    • ISO/TS 15066 was published in 2016 by the International Organisation for Standardisation under ISO TC 299 (Robotics), specifically Working Group 3. It arose because the existing ISO 10218 series governed traditional Industrial Robot safety through physical separation barriers and hard perimeter guarding, leaving a significant gap for emerging Collaborative Robot (cobot) deployments where workers intentionally share space with moving robots.
    • The specification’s central contribution is a normative biomechanical dataset linking body region, tissue type (bone, muscle, skin), and acceptable transient contact limits expressed as maximum permissible force (Newtons) and pressure (N/cm²). This empirical grounding distinguishes it from purely procedural safety standards; the limits derive from published pain-threshold research in medical and ergonomic literature.
    • ISO/TS 15066 is a Technical Specification, not a full International Standard, meaning it was issued to provide practical guidance ahead of consensus maturity. Ongoing ISO TC 299 work under ISO 10218-3 is intended to elevate and update this material into a full IS once field-deployment experience and additional biomechanical research reach consensus.
    • Compliance with ISO/TS 15066 is expected — though not legally mandated in all jurisdictions — for cobot applications seeking CE Marking under EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. Many national regulators and notified bodies treat adherence as evidence of state-of-the-art practice.

    Key Components

    Four Collaboration Modes

    • Safety-Rated Monitored Stop (SRMS): The robot is permitted to move only when no person is detected within the collaboration space; when a person is present, the robot holds a safety-rated stop. Simplest mode, with no ongoing human–robot interaction while the robot is in motion.
    • Hand Guiding (HG): A worker physically steers the robot end-effector using a hand-guiding device; the robot is in a safety-rated monitored stop before guiding begins. Requires ergonomic force/torque sensing at the tool-centre point and is used for teach-by-demonstration tasks.
    • Speed and Separation Monitoring (SSM): The robot continues to move while a person is present, but speed is continuously reduced as the measured separation distance decreases. A minimum protective separation distance (PSD) is maintained dynamically based on robot speed, braking distance, and reaction time of the sensing system. Typically implemented with Laser Scanner, 3D Vision, or Time-of-Flight sensors providing real-time distance measurement.
    • Power and Force Limiting (PFL): The robot is permitted to make transient contact with a person, provided the contact force and pressure remain below the biomechanical limits tabulated for each body region. Requires intrinsic compliance through Force Control and Torque Sensing or external contact-detection hardware. The most permissive and technically demanding mode; the heart of the biomechanical dataset in Annex A of the specification.

    Biomechanical Dataset (Annex A)

    • Specifies quasi-static and transient contact limits for 29 body regions (skull, neck, shoulder, upper arm, forearm, hand, chest, abdomen, pelvis, thigh, knee, shin, foot, etc.).
    • Distinguishes between clamping contacts (body part trapped between robot and fixed surface) and transient contacts (glancing or brief impact); clamping limits are substantially lower.
    • Values expressed as force (N) and pressure (N/cm²); both limits apply simultaneously and the most restrictive governs.
    • The dataset is foundational for Cobot manufacturers specifying their collaborative-mode force ratings and for system integrators designing Risk Assessment documentation.

    Protective Separation Distance (PSD) Model

    • Defines a geometry for the PSD in SSM mode: the minimum separation to maintain between the nearest point of the robot system (including tooling and workpiece) and any detected body part.
    • PSD is a function of robot stopping distance (at current speed), human approach speed, sensor response latency, and position uncertainty of the detection system.
    • Requires Proximity Sensing with known measurement uncertainty and a validated safety-rated control path meeting ISO 13849 or IEC 62061 Performance Level requirements.

    Risk Assessment Integration

    • The specification does not replace ISO 12100 (general risk assessment for machinery) or the ISO 10218 series but operates as a supplementary document providing the technical parameters needed to assess and validate collaborative operations.
    • Integrators must document collaboration space geometry, tool and workpiece characteristics, identified body parts at risk, contact scenarios, and resulting force/pressure against Annex A limits.

    Applications and Use Cases

    • Assembly and Insertion Tasks: Cobots operating in PFL mode perform screw-driving, press-fitting, and part-handling alongside human workers on shared assembly lines; ISO/TS 15066 Annex A limits determine the maximum permissible contact forces at each station.
    • Teach-by-Demonstration: In Hand Guiding mode, a skilled operator manually moves a robot arm through a motion path to record a programme, eliminating manual programming for complex trajectories.
    • Machine Tending: A cobot using SSM mode loads and unloads a CNC machine, slowing as the human operator approaches the machine door; the specification defines the PSD parameters for this dynamic safety boundary.
    • Inspection and Quality Control: Lightweight collaborative arms equipped with vision sensors perform surface inspection alongside inspectors; the cobot operates in SSM, stopping or slowing when the inspector reaches into the field of view.
    • Healthcare and Assistive Robotics: Although ISO/TS 15066 is primarily scoped for industrial environments, its biomechanical dataset and PFL framework are referenced in medical robot safety discussions and informally applied in exoskeleton and assistive-device risk assessments.
    • CE Marking and Market Access: System integrators across the EU compile technical files citing ISO/TS 15066 to demonstrate compliance with essential health and safety requirements under the EU Machinery Directive, a prerequisite for market access.
    • Cobot Manufacturer Specifications: Universal Robots, FANUC CR series, ABB YuMi and GoFa, KUKA LBR iiwa, and other cobot platforms cite ISO/TS 15066 PFL limits in their conformity declarations and application manuals.

    Standards and Context

    • ISO TC 299: The ISO Technical Committee for Robotics (formerly TC 184/SC 2) is the issuing body for ISO/TS 15066. Working Group 3 within TC 299 is responsible for collaborative robot safety standards and is developing the successor ISO 10218-3.
    • ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2: The parent standards governing industrial robot safety requirements for the robot mechanism (Part 1) and the robot system integration (Part 2). ISO/TS 15066 is explicitly a supplement to these, not a standalone replacement.
    • ISO 12100: The overarching machinery risk-assessment standard providing the general framework within which ISO/TS 15066 biomechanical limits are applied.
    • ISO 13849: Provides Performance Level requirements for safety-related control system functions; SSM and SRMS implementations must achieve the PL specified in the risk assessment under ISO 13849 or the equivalent SIL under IEC 62061.
    • IEC 62061: Alternative functional safety standard (SIL-based) accepted alongside ISO 13849 for machinery safety control systems.
    • EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC: The EU legal instrument requiring machinery placed on the European market to meet essential health and safety requirements (EHSR); ISO/TS 15066 provides harmonised technical guidance supporting conformity demonstration.
    • ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012 (USA): The American equivalent standard for industrial robot safety, broadly aligned with ISO 10218 and used in conjunction with ISO/TS 15066 for US market deployments.
    • ISO 10218-3 (in development): The anticipated full International Standard that will supersede ISO/TS 15066, incorporating updated biomechanical data, expanded collaboration mode definitions, and lessons from widespread cobot deployments since 2016.
    • UR+ and ROS-Industrial ecosystems: Frameworks that reference ISO/TS 15066 biomechanical limits when certifying third-party end-effectors and application packages for collaborative operation.

    Current Landscape (2026)

    • The revised ISO 10218-1:2025 (Edition 3) and ISO 10218-2:2025 (Edition 2) were published in early 2025 and came into force on 1 April 2025, cancelling and replacing the 2011 editions; they fold the collaborative-application content that ISO/TS 15066:2016 had supplied since 2016 directly into the core standards, so a manufacturer building to the 2025 edition no longer needs a separate TS 15066 citation for power-and-force-limiting.
    • ISO/TS 15066:2016 is now superseded in practice: its power-and-force-limiting and collaborative-application requirements became normative inside ISO 10218-2:2025, though ISO’s catalogue still lists the specification as formally published, and Annex A’s biomechanical force and pressure limits per body region remain the widely cited working reference for PFL design.
    • Terminology shifted decisively: the term “collaborative robot” is removed, replaced by “collaborative application” (clause 3.1.1.6) and “collaborative task” (3.1.1.7), so compliance is now assessed at the application level (robot, task and environment together) rather than the robot hardware alone; the four modes (safety-rated monitored stop, hand guiding, speed and separation monitoring, power and force limiting) are preserved.
    • ISO 10218-2:2025 expanded from 7 to 17 annexes, replaced the fixed PL d functional-safety approach with function-specific PLr determination, added explicit cybersecurity-as-safety requirements for the first time, introduced new robot classifications with corresponding test methods, and standardised the previously ad-hoc PFL biomechanical test methodology.
    • The US followed within months: ANSI/A3 R15.06-2025 (Parts 1 and 2) published across September and October 2025, adopting the 2025 ISO editions and replacing ANSI/RIA R15.06-2012, with a new ANSI/A3 R15.06-3-2025 covering end-user use of robot cells.
    • Regional transposition into EN, DIN and ÖNORM is ongoing through 2025-2026; in Europe the harmonisation intersects with the EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230, which replaces the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC from January 2027.
    • Industry uptake lags the paperwork: a 336-robot datasheet survey published July 2026 found zero robots citing the 2025 edition by name and 7 Dobot cobots still citing the withdrawn ISO 10218-1:2011, highlighting an open reconciliation challenge over whether pre-merge TS 15066 PFL methodologies match the consolidated 2025 requirements.

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