Safety

The IT-risks which factory infrastructures are exposed to, require a common view of IT-security and operational technology (OT) protection. In this context, the measures from office IT can only be transferred to the production area and production control to a limited extent. The requirements and protection goals for the equipment used and the networking between these components are too different. An integrated approach and continuous management of IT security helps to identify and implement targeted measures in a concerted manner.

In recent years some of the characteristics of robots designed for home or service robotics have been introduced in the industrial sector, enabling the collaboration and the sharing of common workspaces between human and robots. This article reviews some of the commercially available new generation robots, the enabling technologies being developed at DFKI Robotics Innovation Center over the last years, as well as the current developments within the European project FourByThree.

The work environment of the future will be characterized by networked cooperating objects. Properties of cyber-physical systems (CPS) cover collection, storage, intelligent processing and communication of data. As a result, new possibilities regarding interaction and collaboration arise. This paper focuses on the technical and organizational challenges of a robust safety and protection system, which is suitable for a human-robot-collaboration scenario. Known requirements for both an integrated safety concept of human-robot-collaboration and the functional safety of machines and electronic systems are identified and a reference architecture is developed for a semi-automatic assembly process.

Management of security nowadays is a central task of supply chain management. This contribtion analyses and characterises different dimensions of supply chain security and develops a multi-stage concept to create a comprehensive proactive security management.