(Translation of German Websites)
Since 19 July 2023 the new Regulation on Machinery Regulation(EU)2023/1230 is in force. Over a long time, it has been assumed that the new Machinery Regulation will take on board robot specific requirements. Did this happen?
The European Machinery Regulation (EU)2023/1230 replaces the well-known Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. On 19 July 2023 the new Regulation on Machinery Regulation(EU)2023/1230 came into force. During transition period of 42 month still the old Machinery Directive will be applied. Application of new Machinery Regulation will be mandatory from 20 January 2027.
Among others the update was focusing on remove of uncertainties and representing the ongoing state of the art. In this context e.g., the draft of Machinery Regulation from April 2021 still mentioned the risks coming from collaborative robots (cobots). It said that the number of cobots would rise exponentially. Furthermore, they are less dependent from human operators. And they could learn and become more autonomous (Reasons Nr. 1.1 und reasons Nr. 11). These statements drove concern that the new Machinery Regulation could present a lot of new robot specific requirements which could put manufacturers and integrators in a dilemma.
These concerns did not become true. The Machinery Regulation of today does not contain the statements mentioned above. The only remaining robotic relevant phrase is a reference on new challenges for product safety. New robot specific legal requirements or technical requirements within annex III did not come.
However, this is perhaps not the moment to become already completely relaxed. The requirements of Machinery Regulation regarding cyber security and artificial intelligence (AI) could be even for robotics more than relevant.
