Energy-Based Injury Protection Database: Including Shearing Contact Thresholds for Hand and Finger Using Porcine Surrogates
Dirk M ̈uller, Nader Rajaei, Rainer Burgkart and Sami Haddadin
AI summary
Problem
Existing robot safety standards rely on conservative, perpendicular impact thresholds and lack data for edged or shearing contacts, limiting accurate injury risk assessment in real-world human-robot interactions.
Approach
The authors reevaluated prior porcine surrogate data and conducted new unconstrained shearing collision experiments using pig front paws to measure injury thresholds across varying impact geometries, masses, velocities, and angles.
Key results
- First energy-based Injury Protection Database covering diverse contact geometries and angles
- Unconstrained shearing contacts result in fewer injuries than perpendicular impacts
- Kinetic energy thresholds established for preventing skin cuts, abrasions, and tendon injuries
- Impact angle significantly alters injury severity, challenging conservative safety assumptions
Why it matters
Provides collaborative and humanoid robot developers with scalable, clinically grounded energy limits to design safer, real-world collision mitigation controllers.
Abstract
While robotics research continues to propose strategies for collision avoidance in human-robot interaction, the reality of constrained environments and future humanoid systems makes contact inevitable. To mitigate injury risks, energy-constraining control approaches are commonly used, often relying on safety thresholds derived from blunt impact data in EN ISO 10218-2:2025. However, this dataset does not extend to edged or pointed collisions. Without scalable, clinically grounded datasets covering diverse contact scenarios, safety validation remains limited. Previous studies have laid the groundwork by assessing surrogate-based velocity and mass limits across various geometries, focusing on perpendicular im- pacts. This study expands those datasets by including shearing contact scenarios in unconstrained collisions, revealing that collision angle significantly affects injury outcomes. Notably, unconstrained shearing contacts result in fewer injuries than perpendicular ones. By reevaluating all prior porcine surrogate data, we establish energy thresholds across geometries and contact types, forming the first energy-based Injury Protection Database. This enables the development of meaningful energy- limiting controllers that ensure safety across a wide range of realistic collision events.