Defining Safety Zones

You can define robot and axis safety zones for improving the occupational health and safety of the workers in a production environment.

The following types of safety zones can be defined:

  • A TCP safety zone that creates constraints on the TCP of the robot.
  • An Axis safety zone that defines an allowed range.
  • A Tool volume zone that defines the possible volume that the tool can occupy.

Jogging a robot TCP outside a defined safety zone can cause the robot to change color, display a warning message, or stop the simulation, depending on your preferences defined in Me > Preferences.

This task shows you how to:

Define a TCP Safety Zone

You can constrain the TCP of a robot by defining several zones.

  1. From the Setup section of the action bar, click TCP safety zone .
    You are prompted to select a resource to create a safety zone.
  2. Select a resource in the work area.
    The TCP Safety Zone panel appears, providing properties for defining the geometry that will be the safety zone. In the work area, a number of points connected by lines appear at the base of the resource that represent the initial state of the safety zone.



    By default, the safety zone is polyhedral in shape. You can also select Cylinder from the Shape type list.

  3. Enter values directly in the panel, or click on a point in the work area to snap the orientation Robot to it.
    Once the orientation Robot is snapped to a point, you can use it to move the point to a desired location to begin defining the safety zone.



    As you increase the size of the safety zone, passing the cursor over it also reveals vertical and horizontal arrows that you can use to define the shape and size of the safety zone.



    Passing the cursor over a white line will also prompt you to click on the line to create a new point at that cursor location.

  4. When you have defined the safety zone, click OK.


    The safety zone is created under the Safety Zones node under the resource in the tree. You can edit it by double-clicking it in the tree.

Define an Axis Safety Zone

You can define specific axis to be monitored within a certain range.

  1. From the Setup section of the action bar, click Axis safety zone .
    You are prompted to select a resource.
  2. Select a resource.
    The Axis Safety panel appears, and lists all of the commands of the selected resource.
  3. For each command you select, you can select Safe Inside to indicate that it is safe to be inside the Lower and Upper values that you specify. If a command is selected and Safe Inside is not selected, it is considered safe to be outside the Lower and Upper values.
  4. Click OK to close the Axis Safety panel.

Define a Tool Volume

You can define a tool volume at the TCP location.

  1. From the Setup section of the action bar, click Tool volume .
    You are prompted to select a resource.
  2. Select a resource that has kinematics.
    The Tool Volume panel appears, and a sphere appears around the TCP in the work area.
  3. Enter values directly in the panel, or manipulate the sphere in the work area to define the radius and position of the volume area.
    As you pass the cursor over the sphere, an arrow appears to allow you to adjust its size.



  4. Click OK to close the Tool Volume panel.