The Challenge
Building a first-in-class autonomous mobile robot (AMR) is hard enough on its own. Certifying it to an international safety standard when your internal safety team is understaffed, your development timeline is moving faster than any standard safety management process, and your safety documentation doesn't yet exist is a different problem entirely.
That's the situation a Fortune 500 technology company found itself in. The AMR they were developing would operate in a collaborative environment alongside people, which meant the stakes for getting the safety program right were high and the certification bar was set accordingly. With rapid design iteration happening in parallel and no documented safety processes in place, they needed experienced outside support that could integrate quickly and work independently.
The Solution
CSA assigned principal engineers with 15-plus years of experience to lead the safety development program directly not in an advisory capacity, but as a fully integrated part of the development team.
The client's pace of development made a conventional safety management approach unworkable, so we built a process around how the team actually operated:
Maintaining rapid response to design changes and emerging questions.
Managing continuously evolving requirements without losing traceability.
Meeting the engineering team where they were rather than asking them to adapt to an external process.
At the same time, CSA established the safety documentation framework the program needed, including processes, templates, and artifacts structured to support both the immediate certification and the organization's work going forward.
The Result
The AMR successfully obtained third-party certification to IEC 61508, becoming the first autonomous mobile robot certified for use in a collaborative environment.
The hardware and software engineering teams developed a working understanding of safety development through the process knowledge and a safety culture they carried forward into subsequent projects. The client also came away with a reusable safety framework, including documented processes and templates, that could be applied across the organization.
The Benefits
What CSA delivered on this project went well beyond a single certification:
Independent Ownership: Our principal-level engineers owned the work independently, giving the client's internal safety team the relief they needed without sacrificing quality.
Eliminating Bottlenecks: The phased, integrated approach meant certification moved at the pace the project demanded.
Knowledge Transfer: Engineering teams with limited prior exposure to functional safety came away with practical knowledge embedded into their daily work.
Reusable Infrastructure: The safety infrastructure we put in place—processes and templates—became a reusable asset for every program that followed.
Ready to talk about your safety program?
Please send an email to info@criticalsa.com to start the conversation about your safety program.