Robotics Safety Requirements

Monday 24 Aug 2026, 13:00 → 14:30 Europe/Zurich

65/1-003 (CERN)

Meeting aimed at defining what the requirements document for safety of the robotic systems should look like

Made clear that we are looking for needs of the safety team, rather than proposed concepts. Once needs and requirements are gathered, then we can propose concepts that can address multiple different use cases in the most efficient manner.

 

Fire Emergency

Shown plots of response time, distance vs detection and temperature of a potential fire.

• Fires may potentially burn from 100-600 deg c.
• We should consider CAF vs CO2 when extinguishing. CAF is far more destructive and may be overkill for small fires that can be better handled by Co2.
• Visibility to detect the fire needs thought, i.e thermal cameras
• IP rating or methods to deal with soot deposition and smoke. Lens can easily get covered and may need wiping.

 

Medical Emergency

• Monitoring
• Intervention with sick or injured person
• Potential to be a robot buddy. Do not limit the tasks of the robot by assuming they cannot be buddies. If that improves effectiveness or safety then can be considered.

 

Technical intervention

• For emergency protocol, not just regular inspection.
• Leakage
• Assessments

 

Other

What about if the robot catches fire? We need to consider sensing and self awareness to detect and handle this case.

Chris Mcgreave is currently working on Quadruped concept for the service caverns. These requirements can also be used for FCC. Check with Chris, maybe these requirements can also be used for FCC service caverns?

We should have a requirement for prioritising safety aspects, i.e allowing operation to be over-ridden by the fire service in CoE.

Fire classification:

• 1 MW fire is equivalent to a chair on fire, can be extinguished with handheld extinguishers.
• 5 MW fire is equivalent to a car fire and requires more drastic approach. This is what SES is currently specced for.