IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2018 - 9

rapidly evolving robot standardization
environment, mostly outlined by the
work of the ISO and IEC. It is important
to recognize the work that has been
done by these SDOs and review the cur-
rent hot areas to better understand the
landscape of robot standards.
Different SDOs adopt different
approaches to fill the existing gaps.
While ISO has one central standard-
ization committee, Technical Com-
mittee (TC) 299 for robotics, IEC
relies on a distributed structure, where
robotic standards are mainly devel-
oped by TCs and subcommittees
(SCs) of various application domains,
such as lawnmowers and household
appliances. However, IEC has created
an Advisory Committee on Applica-
tions of Robotics Technology to coor-
dinate robot standardization activities
within ISO and IEC. International
(safety) standards are based on reach-
ing consensus among the participat-
ing countries. Working groups (WGs)
are open to all interested stakeholders
from industry, academia, and general

society, including manufacturers, inte-
grators, and professional end users.
The largest number of robot-related
standards has so far been developed
by the ISO TC 299 Robotics, which
groups together all ISO standardiza-
tion activities related to robotics, in-
cluding diverse liaisons with IEC on
medical robotics. The current struc-
ture of this TC, its (joint) WGs, chairs,
and main activities are summarized in
Figure 1. Further information on TC
299 is available on the ISO website
(https://www.iso.org/committee/
5915511.html). The current activities
of the TC and the WGs within are
detailed in the following sections.
Progress in WG 1: Vocabulary
and Characteristics
WG 1 is maintaining robot-related def-
initions and terminology that are used
in the different WGs in TC 299. Funda-
mental definitions are the terms robot,
robotics, robotic technology, and auton-
omy, which are used in the title and
scope of the robotics standardization

committee. As the market for service
robots is still emerging, these defini-
tions are not considered to be final but
are expected to be adjusted from time
to time as necessary. With the recently
initiated review process of ISO 8373,
WG 1 will coordinate a systematic
review of the definitions with the goal
of ensuring that the terminology is fit
for future standards and WGs. This will
also include a categorization of robots
based on their mechanical structure,
task, and application domain, which
will allow the exact shaping of scopes
for standards and WGs.
Apart from basic terminology, WG
1 is dealing with other vocabulary for
certain domains, such as navigation or
perception, and published ISO 19649
at the beginning of 2017. The standard
defines terminology for mobile robots,
such as the definitions of wheel types
and undercarriage structures. During
the last meeting in Suzhou, China,
WG 1 started the revision of ISO 8373.
The chair of WG 1 is Soon-Geul Lee
(Kyung Hee University, South Korea).

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march 2018

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