Functional Safety

[Webinar Recap] Managing Functional Safety in Development Efforts for Robotics Development

By |
This image portrays two subject matter experts on the topic of Functional Safety in Robotics Development.

In this blog, we’ll recap our recent webinar, “Managing Functional Safety Development Efforts for Robotics Development” – Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.

Managing Functional Safety Development Efforts for Robotics Development

Industrial manufacturing firms are undergoing rapid transformation as they navigate talent shortages, supply disruptions, digital adoption acceleration, and more. At the same time, they work diligently to accelerate time to market, streamline risk management, and keep accuracy and safety at the forefront.

In this webinar, learn about functional safety challenges during the development of complex robotics systems, and how to conform to IEC 61508. Also, learn about how Jama Software’s new robotics solution allows developers to quickly leverage a template and documentation to kickstart development efforts ensuring quicker time to market, and higher quality and safer products.

You’ll learn more about:

  • Functional safety development challenges
  • IEC 61508 best practices
  • Tips and tricks on certification
  • Jama Software’s new robotics solution offering and benefits

Below is a preview of our webinar. Click HERE to watch it in its entirety.

The following is an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.

Managing Functional Safety in Development Efforts for Robotics Development

Steven Meadows: Hi everyone, and welcome to the webinar on Managing Functional Safety and Development Efforts for Robotics Development. In terms of the agenda today, this is what we’re going to be covering. We’re going to start off with a speech and company introductions. We’ll then look at functional safety and providing IEC 61508 overview, associated challenges, and associated best practices. We’ll then switch gears and talk a little bit around Live Traceability™ followed by robotics development best practices. And then we’ll finally wrap up with Jama Software’s Robotics Solution. So let’s start with some speaker introductions. Go ahead, Nicole.

Nicole Pappler: Okay. Hey everybody. My name’s Nicole Pappler. I am a Senior Functional Safety Expert at AlektoMetis. I started working with safety-critical systems more than 20 years ago, working with automation, working with automotive, and other domains, and always moving around in safety-critical projects with safety-critical systems, being a developer, being a tester, being on the complete system side. About 10 years ago, I started then to work as an assessor of for functional safety at TÜV SÜD. And about three years ago, started together with my business partner, AlektoMetis to provide independent consulting and assessment services using all the experiences that we had up to now. If you want to Google me, I’m also active in several open source for functional safety, so you should be able to follow me around. If you want to contact me, my social media handle is nicpappler, so you can find me on GitHub Discord, and usually wherever you want to look.

As AlektoMetis, our company, together we have more than 20 years of experience. We provide a network of experts for functional safety, for cybersecurity, for multiple domains, so automation, railway, and automotive. And also, we can provide you with services regarding license compliances, processes, and quality management. We have a set of trainings and workshops available for functional safety, for security, or with our network, also for other topics that you need to cover for critical systems and to keep up to date and to drive topics forward, we participate actively in international committees for standard digitization like the IEC, ISO or DIN or also industry networks like the Bitkom, or the Industry Business Network 4.0.

Related: Jama Connect® for Robotics Datasheet

Nicole Pappler: So first of all, I’d like to give you an overview of what’s all this about with functional safety and with IEC 61508. So I’m sure you are here because you already heard about functional safety. Maybe you’re a pro or beginner with functional safety. So first of all, functional safety is the topic that’s associated with reducing risks that are associated with products that can be caused either by random faults, which means faults of a sense, or faults by the controller, just random things stop working or start working in a very inconsistent way. So one of the big topics in functional safety is really avoiding random faults, avoiding faults due to hardware components just dying on you. And the other big topic in functional safety is the avoidance of risk due to systematic faults.

So systematic faults are usually faults that happen during the development, that happen during deployment, or maintenance of a product that is due to topics that are not covered, that are due to hazards you have not considered. This is due to functions you haven’t implemented correctly or that haven’t been tested if they are correctly implemented and then go into the field in an inconsistent or insufficient way. So functional safety can be achieved then by the methods of engineering and of process application. It means the random faults you avoid by systematically identifying what are the critical components, what are critical parts, and other critical functions within your system. Then choose suitable and robust system architectures suitable and robust components and hardware parts to be integrated into your system.

And then to avoid systematic fault by applying a suitable development process, by applying suitable verification measures, by using a suitable deployment and maintenance process. And then also going into a suitable change management process for your system, so that you don’t add bugs and sufficiencies to your system that wouldn’t be there by definition. So easily, you don’t need to start thinking about how to do this on your own. So there are standards around. And the main functional safety standard is the IEC 61508. It’s a standard that talks about functional safety for electrical and electronic and in any kind of ways programmable safety related systems. And although there are a lot of other safety standards around, IEC 61508 is still not only the most generic, but also the most used and most applied standard, not only in other industries but specifically also in the automation industry.

Related: FORT Robotics Selects Jama Connect® to Replace Google Sheets for Product Development 

Pappler: So what will IEC 61508 help you with? So what is defined there? Most of it really consists of methods and definitions and explanations, how to do engineering and how to do the planning of your engineering, of the safety-relevant systems and equipment. Then with the process, how to reduce your development issues by planning ahead, by planning your resources, and by deciding what kind of methods are suitable for your kind of development. There are standard planning methods defined. You need to have a safety plan that’s more or less the project management plan thingy for your safety-relevant tasks. You have the definition of processes, so everything will be done in a consistent and traceable way. You will have templates though that you won’t have to invent the structure of a document that invents the structure of your definitions every time. Again, the standard also talks, let’s say on a very high level, but on a very important level about safety architectural requirements.

It walks you through a few basic architectural topics like one-channel systems, two-channel systems, and three-channel systems. How do you need to set them up? What are the minimum requirements regarding diagnosis you want to do live on these channels? So that already gives you a lot of help with the basic setup. What is the minimum requirement? And then you can go from there really deciding if is this sufficient for my use case. IEC 61508 also is very strong in the definition of verification activities, be this on the one hand side for inspections, for analyzers, for reviews of your plant concept, of your requirements of your specifications. And also on how to do testing on multiple stages of your development after deployment or during maintenance. It also guides you then after development, after production of your system, how to mitigate the issues or to avoid issues that might be introduced during installation or during the integration of your system into a bigger system.

This has been an abbreviated transcript of our webinar.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS WEBINAR IN ITS ENTIRETY:
Managing Functional Safety Development Efforts for Robotics Development

Steven Meadows
Latest posts by Steven Meadows (see all)