Automating the safety testing of manufacturing robots

Published: 23.02.2026

Building on a long-standing partnership spanning more than fifteen years, Simula and ABB Robotics Norway are excited to announce an ambitious joint research project: ConCerT (Automated Continuous Certification and Testing of Industrial Robots).

Automating robotics safety and efficiency with AI
The ConCerT project uses artificial intelligence (AI) to dramatically speed up the testing and certification process for industrial robots. Its key innovation is continuous certification, which will entail creating a fully automated, continual testing system that integrates the thorough requirements of safety certification directly into the modern development process. Using both computer simulations and physical tests, the project ensures high reliability and safety while also using resources more efficiently.

This project represents a significant step towards developing safer, smarter, and more autonomous manufacturing systems for the future. As detailed in the recent ABB press release, ConCerT is designed to reduce the time needed to certify a single security module from approximately 11 days of manual work to 1-2 days through an AI-assisted process. The research achieves this by combining automated, cloud-based simulations with physical robot testing, including controlled fault injection, allowing the team to test a much wider range of scenarios and find system weaknesses with greater efficiency. This has the potential to evolve manufacturing efficiency and safety certification as we know it.

Voices from the partners
Helge Spieker, Chief Research Scientist at Simula, was instrumental in the fruition of this project. Spieker had this to say, “We look forward to moving from experimental research to a practical, automated pipeline that makes robot certification faster and more reliable with AI-driven software testing.”

Dr. Morten Mossige, Senior Principal Engineer from ABB Robotics Norway, acknowledged the project on LinkedIn stating, “I’m proud to share that ABB Robotics has been awarded funding from the Research Council of Norway to accelerate the development of AI‑driven safety testing for robotic systems. This is an important step toward enabling safer, smarter, and more autonomous robots for the future. […] Together, we will develop cutting‑edge AI‑based methods to automatically generate, run, and assess safety‑critical test scenarios, helping robots operate safely in increasingly dynamic and human‑centric environments. Excited for what’s ahead — let’s keep pushing robotics innovation forward!”

Are Magnus Bruaset, Director of Software and AI from Simula offered his perspective on this enduring relationship on LinkedIn also, writing, “ABB Robotics and Morten Mossige have been frontrunners in research-based innovation for a long time. It is really great to accompany such an innovative partner on their journey through a technological revolution!”

The ConCerT project initially focuses on ABB’s industrial painting robots, and this project in context further demonstrates how deep, sustained collaboration between industry and academia can speed up the adoption of AI-driven innovation in critical industrial processes. It establishes a template for more agile and resource-efficient testing across the manufacturing sector.

More information

Photo courtesy of ABB Robotics.