AiVibeSpeed and Separation Monitoring (SSM)
Speed and separation monitoring is a collaborative operation method in which safety sensors track the distance between people and a robot, and the robot slows or stops so that a protective separation distance is always maintained.
Safety-rated sensors such as laser scanners, light curtains or 3D safety sensors detect people in zones around the robot. The safety system continuously compares the measured separation with a protective distance that accounts for the speeds of the robot and the person, the robot's stopping time and distance, sensor response times and measurement uncertainty. As a person approaches, the robot reduces speed, and if the separation falls below the limit it stops.
SSM lets a robot run at full speed when nobody is nearby and continue at reduced speed when people enter, avoiding the downtime of fenced cells with interlocked doors. It suits palletising, machine tending and logistics cells with occasional human access, and it can be applied to conventional industrial robots as well as cobots.
ISO/TS 15066 describes how to calculate the protective separation distance, and ISO 13855 covers human approach speeds for positioning safeguards. All sensors, logic and robot speed monitoring must be safety-rated to the required performance level, and the configuration must be validated on site by qualified personnel.
Key points
- Maintains a protective separation distance between people and the robot
- The robot slows as people approach and stops if they come too close
- Works with conventional robots as well as cobots
- The distance calculation is described in ISO/TS 15066
Where AiVibe comes in
AiVibe designs and manufactures the AiAmbA AI Factory, whose edge devices and AI agents let people talk to robot controllers in plain language. Robotics perception is an AiAmbA use case, and robot safety functions follow ISO 10218 and never depend on the AI layer.