AGVs should provide more than basic safety requirements

Incidentes con carretillas elevadoras en EE. UU. provocan cada año 85 muertes y 34 900 lesiones graves, según un estudio de la Administración de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional (OHSA).

The reduction of human error, increased safety, and less need for complicated training or skills necessary to operate these machines are all factors to take into account while building an AGV.

Mobile Robots offer a simple way to increase both operational efficiency and safety in your manufacturing plant or warehouse. AGVs are free to perform other tasks where they add more value to the process, and the number of accidents caused by manual forklifts is reduced. AGVs often share workspaces with people, making protection a primary consideration in their design.

Most deaths are caused by:

Entrapment. Either by things falling on them, maybe as a result of an unstable load or driver error, or from getting stuck between the truck and a hard surface or another truck.
Fatigue. This increases the likelihood of human error, and accidents from inappropriate or repetitive lifting are two further safety concerns in manual activities.

Mobile robot manufacturers must follow the minimum protection requirements, but are they enough? All Autonomous Guided Vehicles must have certain types of sensors and safety equipment to proactively avoid and mitigate dangers. However, they do not consider the procedure for determining if a load is stable or for finding flaws in the working process. If we examine the fundamental structure, AGVs can very easily include extra features to raise the very minimal levels of protection.

These vehicles have demonstrated that they can enhance safety compared to human-controlled vehicles. They also offer effective solutions in an expanding range of applications. In order to ensure greater safety for workers, equipment, and transported goods, it is essential to seek solutions that exceed the bare minimum requirements while safety standards are being defined.