  Ensuring the safety of the equipment, its environment and most importantly,
the operator during robot operations is of paramount importance. Robots and
complex robotic systems are appearing in more and more industrial and
professional service applications. However, while mechanical components and
control systems are advancing rapidly, the legislation background and standards
framework for such systems and machinery are lagging behind. As part of a
fundamental research work targeting industrial robots and industry 4.0
solutions for completely automated slaughtering, it was revealed that there are
no particular standards addressing robotics systems applied to the agrifood
domain. More specifically, within the agrifood sector, the only standards
existing for the meat industry and the red meat sector are hygienic standards
related to machinery. None of the identified standards or regulations consider
the safety of autonomous robot operations or human robot collaborations in the
abattoirs. The goal of this paper is to provide a general overview of the
regulations and standards (and similar guiding documents) relevant for such
applications, that could possibly be used as guidelines during the development
of inherently safe robotic systems for abattoirs. Reviewing and summarizing the
relevant standard and legislation landscape should also offer some instrumental
help regarding the foreseen certification procedure of meat processing robots
and robot cells for slaughterhouses in the near future.
