Safety & Regulatory Basics

Safety & Regulatory Basics

A robot or IoT device can hurt people, start a fire, or leak personal data. This subject is about spotting those risks early and advising what "safe enough" means for a student prototype vs. a product: electrical limits, moving parts, emergency stop, and which standards you must at least be aware of (even if you are not certifying the device).

Starting Points

• Safety & constraints fundamentals
• IEC. Functional safety (IEC 61508 overview).
• European Commission. CE marking.

Key Points

• You identify electrical, mechanical, and data-privacy hazards in your project and who is exposed to them.
• You propose concrete mitigations (current limit, enclosure, e-stop, data minimisation) and say what they do not cover.
• You distinguish a lab prototype from a product that would need CE marking or a functional-safety process.
• You name at least one relevant standard or legal frame (e.g. IEC 61508, machinery, radio/EMC, GDPR) and explain why it matters for your device class.
• You advise stakeholders on residual risk in language they can act on, not only in engineering jargon.