Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS
Generative AI (GenAI) to automate safety-critical activities
In today's fast-paced manufacturing landscape, the need for efficient safety verification for industrial robots has never been greater. Fraunhofer IKS solutions use generative AI (GenAI) to automate safety-critical activities and optimize the certification process for industrial robots. This not only reduces the cost of safety verification, but also accelerates the implementation of automation projects in robotics and opens up innovative, collaborative applications in complex environments.
The challenge: safety assessments for complex robot applications
Industrial robots have revolutionized manufacturing with their flexibility, precision and performance. And due to the increasing shortage of skilled workers, more and more production steps need to be automated. While standardized robot applications can be implemented quickly, specific solutions have to be developed extensively. Proof of safety is a further obstacle here. This is because it is a resource-intensive process and the associated costs can limit the economic viability of new applications. This applies in particular to environments in which a high degree of variability is required and robotic applications are to perform collaborative tasks.
The solution: support for safety engineers through generative AI
In order to overcome these challenges, Fraunhofer IKS is developing solutions that partially automate the safety verification process, drawing on established standards such as IEC 61508. While human expertise remains indispensable, many steps in the safety lifecycle are predestined for automation. By using generative AI, safety engineers can efficiently identify hazards and risks, derive safety requirements and plan safety-related verification and validation activities. Our approach also automates the creation of the required safety documentation and summarizes it in a comprehensive safety case for a smooth assessment.