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Fennec Engineering writes here about the working end of functional safety: what assessors ask for, where safety evidence falls behind the machine, and how standards like IEC 61508, ISO 13849 and the EU Machinery Regulation land on a robotics program. Most of these posts started as a question an engineer brought us.

22 September 2026Things That Have Never Happened Before Keep HappeningEvery autonomous machine eventually meets a situation no requirements document anticipated, and that gap is why open-world safety has to be proven.
15 September 2026Voluntary Meets Mandatory: How Three Rulebooks Quietly Converge on One StoryA functional safety standard, an AI safety specification, and a European cybersecurity law, read together, reveal that safety and security are merging into one discipline. Here's what that means for the products you build.
8 September 2026The Empty Driver's Seat: Who Is Liable When a Robot Gets It Wrong?Historically, fault in an accident started with the person in control. Robotics and autonomous systems are quietly dismantling that assumption, and the liability that follows lands squarely on the companies that build and deploy them. Here is why safety claims you can actually prove are becoming a commercial necessity.
31 August 2026The Numbers Say Robots Are Safe. The Numbers Are Incomplete.Low robot-incident counts look like safety, but thin voluntary reporting hides the real risk. Why safety must be engineered before deployment, not counted after.
25 August 2026Every Robot Has a Safety Story. Here Is How to Tell It.A safety case isn't a single artifact assembled at the end. It's a defensible, evidence-backed argument built across your development lifecycle. Here's what belongs in a safety case for robotics and autonomous systems, structured around the four functional safety phases.
21 August 2026The Five-Page Plan an Assessor Reads FirstA functional safety management plan gives an assessor the context needed to judge the rest of the evidence. Useful plans are short, named, and used.
19 August 2026A Safety Requirement Has to Say More Than StopA requirement such as the system shall stop when the gate opens leaves the safe state, timing, modes, and fault behavior unanswered. Here is what the SRS must settle.
17 August 2026ISO 26262 When You Are Not an AutomakerAn automotive customer sent an ISO 26262 questionnaire for an industrial robot. Answer the scope question, then give them the safety evidence they are really asking for.
14 August 2026Do the Common-Cause Checklist Before the Cables Are RoutedISO 13849-1 uses eight scored measures in six groups and a 65-point threshold. Most of the points describe design choices that are expensive to revisit later.
12 August 2026Systematic Capability vs SIL: Read the Certificate CarefullyA SIL 3 capable device does not make a SIL 3 safety function. Here is where systematic capability limits the claim, including the diversity exception.
10 August 2026The EU Machinery Regulation Deadline Is January 2027. Here's What Actually Changes.Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces the Machinery Directive on 20 January 2027. The changes that reach into design, not just documentation, and what to do first.
20 July 2026Who Owns Safety When Nobody Has It in Their Title?Who is responsible for machine safety at an integrator with no safety engineer? A practical guide for the controls engineer or PM who just inherited it.
16 July 2026Hazard Analysis for AI and Black Box SystemsHazard analysis for AI systems fails when you treat the model like a component with known failure modes. A practical method: architect it as untrusted.
9 July 2026Product Liability and Functional Safety at Deployment ScaleRobot product liability grows with deployment volume. What a defensible safety record looks like when autonomous systems ship in volume, and how to build one.
6 July 2026The Integrator's Guide to the System-Level Safety CaseISO 10218-2 assigns system safety to the integrator rather than the robot maker. What integrators own, what the safety case includes, and where to start.
27 June 2026IEC 62061 vs ISO 13849: Which Machinery Safety Standard Should You Use?Two standards cover the same machinery safety functions with different metrics. Here’s how to tell which one fits the system in front of you.
25 June 2026FMEDA Explained: Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis for Functional SafetyFMEDA is the analysis that turns component failure modes into the failure rates every safety integrity calculation depends on.
23 June 2026How to Calculate Performance Level (PL) under ISO 13849Performance Level is two questions, not one: the PL the risk requires, and the PL your design actually delivers. Here’s how to work out both and prove they line up.
22 June 2026How to Conduct a HARA: Step-by-Step for Robotics and Automation TeamsA Hazard and Risk Assessment (HARA) is the foundation of every functional safety program. Here’s a step-by-step process for robotics and automation teams doing it for the first time.
20 June 2026What Is Safe Failure Fraction (SFF)? How It Affects Your SIL CapabilitySFF works with hardware fault tolerance to set the highest SIL your architecture is allowed to claim, and most teams misread how much weight it actually carries.
18 June 2026IEC 61508 vs ISO 26262: Which Functional Safety Standard Applies to Your Project?One is the parent standard for electronic safety systems across every industry. The other is its automotive offspring. Knowing which governs your work changes how you build.
16 June 2026Functional Safety for Collaborative Robots (Cobots): What Engineering Teams Need to KnowA cobot shares space with people instead of being fenced away from them, and that one fact changes everything about how you design its safety functions.
14 June 2026What Is Diagnostic Coverage (DC)? How It Affects Your SIL CalculationsDiagnostic coverage determines whether your safety architecture can actually achieve its SIL target. Here’s how to calculate it and design around it.
14 June 2026How to Prepare for a Functional Safety Assessment: What NRTLs Actually Look ForWhat NRTLs actually check during a functional safety assessment, in the order they check it, so you can structure your documentation before the review starts instead of during it.
8 June 2026FuSa: What Functional Safety Is and Why It Determines Whether Your System ShipsFunctional safety is the discipline of ensuring systems fail safely. Here’s a clear explanation of what FuSa means, which standards apply to your system, and how engineering teams build it in.
8 June 2026What a Lean Safety Team Actually Looks LikeA lean functional safety team isn't a headcount problem. It's a workflow problem. Here are the four roles that make it work, and what each one stops doing when the platform carries the process.
28 May 2026Fault Tree Analysis for Robotics and Automation: A Practical GuideFault tree analysis maps how individual component failures combine to cause system-level hazardous events. Here’s how to apply FTA in a robotics and automation context with practical examples.
28 May 2026Functional Safety for Autonomous Mobile Robots: The Complete GuideFunctional safety for AMRs covers multiple overlapping standards, complex sensor architectures, and fleet-scale deployment challenges. Here’s how to approach it from concept to certification.
28 May 2026Functional Safety for Humanoid Robots: What Engineering Teams Need to KnowHumanoid robots create functional safety challenges that no existing standard fully addresses. Here’s how leading teams are approaching certification for systems that operate in close proximity to people.
28 May 2026How to Calculate SIL: A Practical Guide to Safety Integrity LevelsSIL calculation involves two separate tasks: determining the required SIL from a risk assessment, and verifying that your architecture achieves it. Here’s how both work for robotics and automation teams.
28 May 2026SISTEMA Alternative: A Practical Guide for Safety Engineers Ready to Move OnSISTEMA calculates performance levels and SIL values, but it doesn’t connect to the rest of your safety workflow. Here’s what a modern alternative actually delivers.
28 May 2026V-Model Safety Engineering: A Guide to the Full Functional Safety LifecycleThe V-Model is the structural backbone of IEC 61508. Here’s a complete guide to what each phase requires and why the sequence determines whether your safety case holds together.
28 May 2026What Is a Safety Case? A Practical Guide for Engineering TeamsA safety case is the documented argument that a system is sufficiently safe. Here’s what it contains, why assessors care about structure over volume, and how to build one that holds together under review.
19 May 2026The Functional Safety Cost That Doesn't Show Up on Your BudgetLaunch delay is the largest functional safety cost on your P&L, and most teams never budget for it. Here is how to move it from unpriced risk to managed.
25 April 2026ISO 13849 vs IEC 61508: When to Use WhichISO 13849 covers machine safety. IEC 61508 covers the full functional safety lifecycle. Here's how to know which standard applies to your system.
18 April 2026What Assessors Actually Want to See in Your Safety Technical FileMost first submissions generate weeks of follow-up questions. Here are the five structural problems assessors find most often and what a clean technical file looks like.
14 April 2026What Builders Get Wrong About Safety Certification (And What the Fastest Teams Do Instead)Most teams treat safety certification as the last step. The fastest teams build it in from day one. Here’s what they do differently.
7 April 2026The Handoff Problem: Why Safety Data Dies Between Builder and IntegratorRobot builders and integrators operate in separate safety universes. Learn why safety data dies at the handoff and what it costs your team.
31 March 2026Your Safety Process Has a Single Point of Failure. It's Probably a Person.Most safety programs break when the lead safety engineer leaves or a second product line starts. Here's why safety process architecture, not headcount, is the fix.
31 March 2026Safety Certification Is Either a Cost or an Investment. Your Process Decides Which.The teams that ship fastest treat safety as infrastructure, not a line item. Here's the structural difference and why it determines whether safety accelerates your roadmap or anchors it.
10 January 2026Functional Safety Documentation: What Engineers Get Wrong and How to Fix ItFunctional safety documentation is not failing because engineers don't care about it. It's failing because it's treated as an end-of-project artifact instead of a living system.
23 November 2025From Regulatory Hurdle to Competitive Edge: Taming SB 53 with ASAPThe landscape of AI and autonomous systems is evolving at a breakneck pace. A new wave of regulation is rising to meet it, and for many organizations, this represents a daunting new challenge.
8 September 2025Beyond the Checkbox: The Strategy Behind Safety TemplatesIn an era of rapid technological advancement, the pressure to bring innovative products to market is immense. For many companies, safety and regulatory compliance can feel like a roadblock: a necessary but complex hurdle that diverts valuable time and resources away from core development.
23 July 2025Unifying Attribution Across Lifecycle PhasesFunctional safety development, as guided by standards like IEC 61508, ISO 13849 or ISO 26262, relies on a structured lifecycle approach to ensure that safety is designed into a system from its inception.
11 July 2025Adopting New Safety Standards Doesn't Have to be Hard: ASAP Makes it EasySwitching to a new standards-based safety tool can seem like a daunting task. You might worry about disrupting your existing processes, migrating your data, and retraining your team. But with ASAP, adopting a new safety standard doesn't have to be a painful process.
15 June 2025Automated Test Cell and Report Generation Tool Vital for AMR Safety CertificationAn Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) being built for a Fortune 10 e-commerce company was in a difficult spot due to the complexity surrounding the Verification and Validation (V&V) of the system's sensing-related safety functions.
20 May 2025Streamlining Embedded Systems Development with ASAP's HiL and SiL CapabilitiesDeveloping complex embedded systems, especially those involving AI or safety-critical components, demands rigorous testing. ASAP simplifies this process by offering both Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) and Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) testing capabilities within a unified platform.
3 April 2025Fennec Engineering and Amazon Collaborate to Enhance Industrial SafetyFor five years, Fennec Engineering has operated in quiet dedication, working alongside Amazon to tackle a critical industry challenge: the inefficient and expensive process of regulatory safety certification.
11 March 2025AI: Power, Promise, and the Path to Provable SafetyThe buzz around Artificial Intelligence (AI) is deafening, and rightfully so. AI is a transformative technology with the potential to revolutionize industries, boost productivity, and solve complex problems.
1 February 2025CE Marking for Robotics: Why Certification Delays Happen and How to Avoid ThemCE marking for robotics systems looks straightforward on paper. In practice, it is where many automation projects lose weeks or months.
30 January 2025Metrics That Matter: Measuring Safety PerformanceThere is an old management adage: "What gets measured gets managed." In the world of industrial safety, however, we often measure the wrong things. Learn about the safety metrics that actually matter.
25 January 2025Building a Safety Culture in Engineering TeamsSafety engineering is often viewed through the lens of standards, metrics, and hardware. But the most critical component of a safe system isn't a sensor or a line of code: it's the culture of the team building it.
20 January 2025Streamlining Verification and Validation ProcessesIn the safety engineering V-Model, the left side (Design) often gets the glory, but the right side (Verification & Validation) does the heavy lifting. Learn how modern engineering teams are optimizing their V&V workflows.
15 January 2025The Future of Safety CertificationFor decades, safety certification has been a static snapshot in time. But in an era of OTA updates, AMRs, and AI-driven logic, the future lies in Continuous Safety Assurance.
10 January 2025Best Practices for Risk Assessment in RoboticsAs robotic systems transition from behind cages to collaborative, fence-free environments, the complexity of ensuring safety has skyrocketed. Learn the best practices for conducting effective risk assessments in modern robotics.
15 December 2024Understanding IEC 61508: A Comprehensive GuideOften called the "mother standard" of functional safety, IEC 61508 is the foundation for industry-specific safety standards. This guide breaks down the core concepts and helps you navigate compliance without getting lost in the weeds.

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