Hey y’all! This is Akshay Chalana from Saphira AI, the Safety Compliance Automation company! If you’re on this list, you’re one of the hundreds of wonderful supporters we’ve met, learned from, and worked with over the last year: we’re starting this newsletter to unite our community and keep everyone updated on the latest we’ve been delivering and news across the world of safety standards and certification!
The structure of this recurring newsletter will be the following:
- Our latest blog post(s) on safety standards
- Saphira’s latest launches (and an exciting podcast with our friends at 3Laws!)
- Certification News across the industry
- Opportunities for engagement
Blog Post: Mobile Robot Safety Standards: Understanding ISO 3691-4 (Driverless Industrial Trucks) and ANSI/RIA R15.08 (Industrial Mobile Robots) Implementation
Mobile robots are transforming manufacturing and logistics, but their growing presence alongside human workers creates real safety challenges. The old approach of simply separating humans and machines with fences doesn't work when AGVs need to navigate dynamic workspaces. Two standards address this head-on: ISO 3691-4 and ANSI/RIA R15.08. They each provide a technical framework for safe human-robot interaction in modern facilities. 3691-4 is particularly important today because the very recently published ISO 10218 2025 series explicitly defers to it for all mobility characteristics of mobile manipulators in the industrial setting, even where it applies to the actual manipulation behaviors.
A SHIFTING LANDSCAPE IN SAFETY STANDARDS
Traditionally, CE marking in European markets has been anchored by a range of ISO, IEC, and EN standards, while ANSI/RIA standards have guided North American implementations. However, the mobile robotics industry is witnessing a shift: many American buyers are now requiring compliance with stricter safety protocols, which, in the case of IMRs, may reference ISO 3691-4 vs. ANSI/RIA R15.08. This trend underscores a broader push toward higher safety benchmarks worldwide, driven by the more stringent elements found in these combined standards frameworks. Furthermore, an increasing number of “gray area” Type C IMRs, such as autonomous forklifts, are governed by ISO 3691-4 vs. ANSI/ITSDF B56.5:2024 (Guided Industrial Vehicles = AGVs), as discussed in these Robot Safety FAQs from A3.
Read more on the Saphira Blog!
Saphira’s Latest Launches
Saphira now offers the simplest method of conducting and managing an ISO 13849/12100 or ANSI/RIA R15.306 Risk Assessment! Our AI copilot can automate standards retrieval and suggestions along the way, and can consolidate distributed controls you build up! Don’t use either of these approaches? Don’t worry! Our system is configurable to any risk assessment framework, ranging from the NIST AI RMF to ARP 4754 to ISO 27001!
Not only can Saphira help produce your safety artifacts in preparation for certification in half the time, we can also help audit thousands of existing artifacts! We now support comprehensive document, diagram, and even code audit for ASPICE and soon ISO 26262!
Saphira AI Automated ASPICE/ISO 26262 Artifact Audit Review Demo 3/7/25
Best of all, check out our breakdown of the ANSI/A3 R15 Week (R15.06+R15.08) meeting last week, with Andrew Singletary of 3Laws, where we discuss all the exciting advancements to come from the publication of Part 3 of each of R15.06 and R15.08 for end users of industrial robotic systems!
Recap: R15.06 & R15.08 Technical Advisory Committee Meeting
Certification News Across the Industry
ISO 10218 industrial robot safety standard receives major overhaul
China-led international standard for elderly care robots released by IEC
How Amazon proved its new delivery drone is safe for takeoff
RTOSX Announces RTOSX KERNEL Functional Safety Certification to Give Developers an Industrial-Grade, Certifiable Alternative to Eclipse ThreadX
Agility Robotics to launch first safety-certified humanoid robot by end of 2025, says CSO Daniel Diez
Opportunities for Engagement
- Meet us at ICRA on May 21st in
- Join us at Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose, CA on March 18th-20th
As always, reach us at contact@saphira.ai or by booking a demo at https://saphira.ai to stay in touch!
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