Safety in the Use of Unmanned Working Machines

The transition of automated machine systems towards autonomous operation is progressing fast in various industrial sectors. The following paper presents the current situation in the regulations that normalize and support the development of working machines for construction purposes. A review of the existing ISO and IEC standards alongside own work focusing on autonomous machines, as well as a review of different activities in international industry groups regarding automation and autonomy of machines have been presented. Three different approaches to the concept of safety have been identified for different working conditions. The paper also tackles issues of on-board machine communication. By analysing different systems and their basic requirements, several optimization possibilities have been identified in relation to combining different data sources. It has been shown that the combination of different systems at the machine level as well as the connection between different machines can have a major impact on the performance of both the entire system as well as on the machine itself.