Cincinnati safety startup debuts its SR-1 fenceless human and robot collaboration at Automate 2026 in Chicago
Sensory Robotics, an industrial safety startup company modernizing how people and robots work together, will introduce its SR-1 system — which uses 3D time-of-flight sensing to build a live, invisible safety zone around an existing industrial robot — at Automate 2026 in Chicago, June 22–25.
The system watches the space continuously, letting the robot run at full speed when the area is clear, slowing it down as a person approaches, and stopping it instantly if someone or something gets too close. The result is that people and fast, heavy robots can work in the same space without the cages and fences that have defined factory floors for decades.
Removing Safety Fences Through Certification
Physical safety fencing consumes valuable floor space and forces a choice between speed and proximity. Slow-moving collaborative robots designed to be safe near people solved the proximity problem but gave up the speed and payload that production lines depend on.
The harder barrier was never just engineering — it was approval. Regulated manufacturers cannot deploy a fenceless system without independent certification, no matter how well the technology performs, because insurance guidelines and regulatory compliance hinge on worker safety. Safety requirements are a large part of why the fence line has stayed in place.
After years of effectively demonstrating its worth, the SR-1 system has been certified under UL 1740 (cULus) and validated to Performance Level d, Category 3 under ISO 13849, with a PFHd of 1.73 × 10⁻⁷, a level of safety certification that is notoriously difficult to achieve and that regulated manufacturers require before deploying any fenceless system.
“This kind of certification is one of the hardest things to achieve in our industry, and that is the point,” said Mark Gagas, chief operating officer of Sensory Robotics. “It is what lets a regulated manufacturer trust a fenceless system enough to put it on a real production line. The milestone is not the paperwork. It is the confidence it gives the people who work next to these machines every day.”
See Unfenced Robot Demos at Automate
Sensory Robotics was founded by CEO Chris Edwards and CTO Tristan Fogt, two technology veterans who arrived at industrial safety from an unlikely starting point: virtual reality gaming. The company has grown up inside Cincinnati’s research and innovation ecosystem and will introduce the SR-1 system at Automate 2026, offering live, unfenced robot demonstrations attendees can watch on a large projector screen.
“Industrial robots were never designed to work next to people. They were powerful machines built to be isolated,” said Chris Edwards, CEO of Sensory Robotics. “What has changed is that the industry now has both the technology and, just as importantly, the certified proof that people and robots can share a space safely.”
