When autonomous robots begin to share the human living and working spaces, safety becomes paramount. It is legally required that the safety of such systems is ensured, e. g. by certification according to relevant standards such as IEC 61508. However, such safety considerations are usually not addressed in academic robotics. In this paper we report on one such successful endeavour, which is conc...

IEC 61508 is currently under revision. The new version will show corrections of some weaknesses of the present version. In addition to the content of what exists, the following topics are planned: characterisation of application software, safety manual, operational changes to software, remote access and security, pre-existing software and components, requirements for safe software as described ...

Functional Safety is a major concern in the design of automation systems today. Many of those systems are realized using PLCs programmed according to IEC 61131-3. PLCopen as IEC 61131 user organization specified a set of software Function Blocks to be used in Safety Applications according to IEC 61508 in 2006. The specification of Technical Committee 5 contains twenty Safety Function Blocks (SF...

Simplified formulas are popular for reliability analysis of safety instrumented systems (SISs). Both the IEC 61508 standard and the PDS-method provide such formulas for calculation of the average frequency of dangerous failures per hour (PFH). These formulas give reasonably accurate values for the PFH, but both of them also have significant weaknesses. The IEC-formulas can only be applied to sy...

Safety systems are be used in a wide range of technical application. Beside the availability of such systems the safety aspects, e. g. PFD and PFH figures, must be observed. Especially the calculation of these figures requires the use of standards. Worldwide are standards available for this calculation. The newest standard is IEC 61508. This standard is worldwide accepted. Another standard, whi...

In line with the advancing technology, reliability has become one of critical factors to be taken into consideration by operators in energy sector minimize losses regarding cost and time. This issue is directly related elements, namely subsystems that make up system. study examines control architecture speed governing system within turbine hydroelectric power plants, which regarded as a provide...

Abstract The modularization of process plants addresses the need for flexible production options in industry. In order to maintain advantages adaptability modular plants, an adaptation established engineering methods and procedures their dynamic context use is required. This paper describes development features a demonstrator, which makes it possible investigate aspects plant topology, design u...