ISO/TS 15066 Robots and Robotic Devices — Collaborative Robots

A 2016 ISO technical specification setting force and pressure limits for human contact with collaborative robots.

ISO/TS 15066 is a technical specification (TS) published by the International Organization for Standardization in 2016, supplementing the industrial robot safety standard ISO 10218 with guidance specifically for people and robots sharing a workspace without a fence between them. It details four collaborative modes: safety-rated monitored stop (the robot stops and is monitored when a person enters the collaborative zone), hand guiding (a person leads the robot by hand), speed and separation monitoring (the robot slows as a person gets closer and stops if they get too close), and power and force limiting (contact is allowed, but the force of any impact is limited). Its most-cited content is a table of force and pressure limits by body part, covering two scenarios: transient contact (the person can freely pull away after being struck) and quasi-static contact (the person is pinned between the robot and a fixed object), with sensitive areas such as the face, temple, and throat requiring avoidance of contact altogether. The corresponding U.S. technical report is RIA TR R15.606-2016. As reported, the 2025 revision of ISO 10218-2 has folded the collaborative-application requirements directly into its main text.

ExampleWhen a collaborative arm and a worker share an assembly table, integrators typically configure it under ‘power and force limiting,’ then use a dedicated force-measurement device to test the actual collision force and pressure at spots on the worker's body the arm might touch, confirming they stay under the specification's limits before putting it into service.

Also called

ISO/TS 15066, ISO/TS 15066:2016, TS 15066

Related

Collaborative Robot · Power and Force Limiting · Speed and Separation Monitoring · ISO 10218-1/-2:2025 Robotics — Safety Requirements · Human-Robot Collaboration · Physical Human-Robot Interaction

Sources

OSHA Technical Manual, Section IV Chapter 4: Industrial Robot Systems and Industrial Robot System Safety
ISO 10218 - Wikipedia

As of

2025