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One or more methods of machine guarding shall be provided to protect the operator and other employees in a machine area from hazards, such as those created by a point-of-operation, in-running nip points, rotating parts, flying chips, sparks, etc. Guards shall be affixed to the machine where possible and secured elsewhere, if for any reason attachment to the machine is not possible. The guard shall be such that it does not create an accident hazard in itself. When power operated tools are designed to accommodate guards, they shall be equipped with such guards when in use. Belts, gears, shafts, pulleys, sprockets, spindles, drums, flywheels, chains, or other reciprocating, rotating or moving parts of equipment shall be guarded if such parts are exposed to contact by employees or otherwise create a hazard.
At present, there are no governmental regulations for safety requirements specifically for robotic or autonomous equipment. It should be expected that state safety enforcement agencies will use the MIOSHA “general duty clause” to justify enforcement actions, where they will apply the existing machine guarding requirements outlined in this chapter to robots and autonomous equipment (i.e., the machine guarding requirements should be considered to apply to robots and autonomous equipment).
Reference Regulations: Guards For Power Transmission (MIOSHA Part 7)
