What fire and life-safety issues should buildings review for delivery robots?
A coordination checklist for egress, fire doors, charging, emergency modes, housekeeping, and the authority having jurisdiction.
Short answer
What to know
Review robot routes, charging locations, stored equipment, fire-door behavior, egress width, emergency response, and failure recovery with the building’s fire and life-safety professionals. A robot pilot must not obstruct required exit paths or change a life-safety system without approved design and review.
Keep life-safety functions independent
Map robot travel and waiting locations against exits, corridors, fire doors, alarm devices, fire-service access, and evacuation routes. Confirm that temporary staging and charging cannot narrow an egress path or create trip hazards. Ask the authority having jurisdiction and qualified fire-protection professionals to determine applicable requirements for the specific building and use.
Clarify what the robot does on alarm, power loss, network failure, or evacuation. It should not hold a fire door open, block responder access, or require a building occupant to troubleshoot equipment during an emergency. Document a safe stop state and who is responsible for moving equipment out of the way when safe to do so.
Review charging and operating procedures
Identify charging equipment, battery type, charging schedule, location, ventilation, electrical supply, and housekeeping responsibilities. Have qualified professionals review the equipment and installation against applicable electrical and fire requirements. Do not assume that a small battery means there is no building review to perform.
Train staff on shutdown, manual movement, incident escalation, and the distinction between a robot fault and a building alarm. Test the plan in a controlled exercise with the safety team and robot provider. Reassess after a route change, a new robot model, a charging-location change, or a change in building emergency procedures.
Put it into practice
A site-planning checklist
- Route overlay with exits and fire doors
- Approved charging location and equipment review
- Alarm, outage, and evacuation behavior
- Safe stop and manual recovery process
- Authority-having-jurisdiction review
Further reading
Primary references
- ISO — ISO 3691-4:2020
International safety requirements and verification for driverless industrial trucks and their systems; confirm current editions and scope before use.
- U.S. Access Board — ADA Standards
U.S. accessibility standards reference; local applicability and project review still matter.