Systems and methods are provided for specifying safety rules for robotic devices. A computing device can determine information about any actors present within a predetermined area of an environment. The computing device can determine a safety classification for the predetermined area based on the information. The safety classification can include: a low safety classification if the information indicates zero actors are present within the predetermined area, a medium safety classification if the information indicates any actors are present within the predetermined area all are of a predetermined first type, and a high safety classification if the information indicates at least one actor present within the predetermined area is of a predetermined second type. After determining the safety classification for the predetermined area, the computing device can provide a safety rule for operating within the predetermined area to a robotic device operating in the environment.

A numerical controller has a test mode of a machining program, sets, for each axis, a neighboring distance from a movement prohibition boundary of a tool or a workpiece, and temporarily stops an axis movement at a boundary of a near region thereof. A movable distance in a direction approaching the movement prohibition boundary is obtained for each axis such that the movable distance is less than a distance to the movement prohibition boundary. Further, if an axis exceeding the movable distance is present, an axis movement is stopped by restricting a movement distance within a range not exceeding the movable distance.

A dual-arm robot system includes a controller configured or programmed to determine whether or not interference determination targets interfere with each other based on whether or not three-dimensional models generated with a plurality of portions including at least a hand among the hand, a horizontal link, and a body as the interference determination targets overlap each other.

A system for the securing of a load handling environment of load handling kinematics (30) in a changing working environment includes an environment sensing unit, which is designed to acquire data of the load handling environment and an environment monitoring unit that is in an operational connection with the environment sensing unit. The environment monitoring unit is designed to analyze the data so that an open space (7) surrounding a load to be handled, a work space (12, 13, 14, 60) defined by a movement space of the load handling kinematics (30) and a process space (40, 50) is determined by addition of the work space (12, 13, 14, 60) and a distance space. The environment monitoring unit is configured to at least partly monitor the distance space and/or the process space (40, 50).

Spatial regions potentially occupied by a robot (or other machinery) or portion thereof and a human operator during performance of all or a defined portion of a task or an application are computationally estimated. These potential occupancy envelopes (POEs) may be based on the states (e.g., the current and expected positions, velocities, accelerations, geometry and/or kinematics) of the robot and the human operator. Once the POEs of human operators in the workspace are established, they can be used to guide or revise motion planning for task execution.

Systems and methods are provided for specifying safety rules for robotic devices. A computing device can determine information about any actors present within a predetermined area of an environment. The computing device can determine a safety classification for the predetermined area based on the information. The safety classification can include: a low safety classification if the information indicates zero actors are present within the predetermined area, a medium safety classification if the information indicates any actors are present within the predetermined area all are of a predetermined first type, and a high safety classification if the information indicates at least one actor present within the predetermined area is of a predetermined second type. After determining the safety classification for the predetermined area, the computing device can provide a safety rule for operating within the predetermined area to a robotic device operating in the environment.