A safer factory automation environment in terms of human-machine interaction is a key differentiator in the smart industry. Safety infrastructures for machine operators are critical, in particular when they concern electrical equipment, robots and heavy loads.
IEC 61508 (Functional safety of electrical/ electronic/ programmable electronic safety-related systems) is a reference standard for safety in all types of industries. Based on best practices to define a safety lifecycle, this standard is designed to discover and identify both hardware and software design errors in order to determine the impact of failures in terms of functional safety.
To further assess risks, additional standards based on IEC 61508 are in continuous development. This includes IEC 61511 and IEC 62061 regarding the safety of industrial processes and machinery, respectively, as well as the IEC 61800-5-2 standard for electrical-power drive systems.
Considering all the possible errors in low- or medium- complex systems, design reviews, checklists, safety regulations, software integrity, Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) testings and hardware checks are an important factor to ensure security in factories.
To facilitate and accelerate development and certification processes for safety-critical services and functions, ST offers a wide range of hardware and software solutions. This includes a comprehensive set of certified software libraries and documentation for manufacturers to achieve functional safety standard certifications. We developed the X-CUBE-STL design package to meet the IEC 61508 Safety Integrity Level (SIL2 / SIL3) standards with STM32 MCUs.
