Gain the confidence to design and risk-assess safe collaborative robot workspaces with this free online course.

Is your SME ready to put a collaborative robot on the shop floor and can every supervisor and operator explain exactly what keeps it safe? Collaborative robots, or cobots, are transforming manufacturing for small and medium-sized enterprises, letting people and robots share a workspace without the fixed safety fences traditional industrial robots require. But removing the fence doesn't remove the risk — it changes what safety actually looks like. Too many SMEs introduce their first cobot with enthusiasm for the technology but no structured plan for risk assessment, ergonomic workspace design, or operator training, and the gaps show up later as hesitant operators, avoidable incidents, or a rollout that quietly underperforms. This course closes that gap, in plain, practical terms.

This CPD-accredited course takes manufacturing supervisors, safety officers, and engineers through the complete foundation for safe human-robot collaboration in an SME setting. You will learn the two international standards that govern collaborative robot safety, ISO 10218 and ISO/TS 15066, including how biomechanical force and pressure limits actually apply to a real task, and how to choose between power-and-force limiting and speed-and-separation monitoring for a specific installation. You will work through a structured, task-based risk assessment using the recognised hierarchy of controls, then apply human-centred design and ergonomic principles to the physical and cognitive workspace, so a technically safe cell is also genuinely usable. The course closes with practical implementation tools: staged operator training, change management for team adoption, and a reusable checklist for future rollouts.

This course is built for manufacturing supervisors, safety officers, and industrial or mechanical engineers at SMEs who are introducing or considering introducing a collaborative robot for the first time, as well as anyone responsible for signing off that a cobot cell is safe to operate. On completion, you will earn a free, CPD-accredited Alison certificate, recognised evidence of your practical competence in collaborative robot safety and ergonomics for your CV or professional development record. Whether you're preparing for your SME's first cobot installation or reviewing an existing one, this course gives you the foundational knowledge, ergonomic design skills, and a practical checklist to do it with confidence. Enrol today and start building your SME's safe automation capability.