Short answer
When new task recordings are made on a production floor, the plant's own safety rules decide where cameras can stand, which machines can be recorded in operation and who may be in frame. A buyer's specification should treat those limits as inputs, ask the plant to name them in writing, and accept that some tasks will be recorded staged, from fewer angles, or not at all.
Why safety limits belong in the data specification
A buyer who writes a capture request for a manufacturing cell usually specifies viewpoints, resolution, task coverage and labels. The plant specifies something else: where people may stand, what must be guarded, which areas need escorts, and what cannot be photographed. When those two lists are reconciled only on the day of recording, the collection crew either loses angles or improvises near equipment.
Putting the plant's constraints into the specification early changes the data plan. You learn which camera positions are realistic before you promise a coverage matrix, and you can decide which tasks to capture live and which to restage elsewhere. The wider question of live versus staged capture is covered in staged vs live operation recording; the working protocol for crews is in recording protocol on live work sites. This page covers the machine-specific layer.
Who owns the constraints
The plant owns them. Site EHS staff, the equipment owner and, for robot cells, the integrator or safety function typically know what is permitted. A collection partner or buyer does not decide that a guard may be opened, a light curtain bypassed or a camera mounted on moving equipment.
Two published references show why you should ask rather than assume. Written energy-control procedures are discussed from the documentation side in lockout/tagout procedures. OSHA's lockout/tagout standard concerns documented procedures for controlling hazardous energy when employees service equipment (OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.147). Whether a particular recording activity touches those procedures is a question for the plant's safety staff, not an inference a buyer should draw. Separately, ISO 10218-1:2025 addresses industrial robots as partly completed machinery and is published alongside a second part covering integration (ISO, 2025); a cell with robots in it may have its own risk documentation, and a recording plan should ask to see what applies. This is not legal advice, and neither reference tells you what a given plant requires of a visiting crew.
Illustrative site-constraints sheet
The block below is an Illustrative template for the document a plant could complete before any recording day. Every value is synthetic.
# Illustrative only - field names and values are examples, not requirements
site_constraints_v0:
site_id: site_017
cell_id: cell_B3
completed_by: plant EHS contact (name and role recorded separately)
recording_modes_allowed:
live_production: false
stopped_line_staged: true
off_line_mockup: true
restricted_zones:
- zone: guarded_machine_envelope
camera_inside: false
people_inside: false
- zone: forklift_aisle
camera_inside: false
escort_required: true
camera_mounts_allowed: [tripod_floor, clamp_on_fixed_structure, head_mounted_on_demonstrator]
camera_mounts_prohibited: [on_moving_equipment, on_guard_panels]
ppe_for_crew: per plant visitor rules
energy_control_procedures_in_scope: ask_ehs # yes / no / ask_ehs
stop_authority: any crew member or plant staff may halt recording
no_record_areas: [badge_screens, customer_part_labels]
re_brief_required_when: [layout_change, new_shift, new_machine_in_frame]
The energy_control_procedures_in_scope field is deliberately a question, not an answer. A buyer should not fill it in on the plant's behalf.
How constraints change what you can capture
| Plant constraint | Likely effect on the data | What the buyer can specify |
|---|---|---|
| No recording of live production | Task is staged on a stopped line or a mockup; pace and interruptions differ | Label recordings as staged; ask for a short live sample where permitted |
| Guarded envelope is off limits for crews | Fixed cameras sit outside; fewer close views of the work point | Require a head-mounted or hand-held view from the demonstrator instead |
| No mounts on moving or guarded equipment | Camera positions limited to floor stands or fixed structure | Ask for mount type per clip in metadata |
| Escorts required in some aisles | Slower sessions; fewer takes per visit | Plan take counts per visit with the plant, not per hour |
| Restricted areas for confidential parts | Frames may need masking or exclusion | Ask how masking is done and whether it covers hands and tools |
| Re-brief after layout or shift change | Sessions split into blocks | Record block boundaries and any change in setup |
Staged recordings are still useful for visual and step-level learning, but they do not carry the cycle pressure of live work. For the pacing issue see working pace in demonstrations.
People in frame
Workers are often near the machines being recorded. Decide before recording whether the demonstrators are the only people who may appear, and whether bystanders can be kept out of frame by scheduling or by camera angle. Consent, notices and who may agree on a worker's behalf are covered in worker consent and identifiable people. Blurring faces or removing identifiers afterward does not settle whether the recording was permitted or whether it may be licensed; those are separate questions about the original notice and the supplier's rights. This is not legal advice.
Footage already captured by a plant's cameras is a separate asset with its own rights, covered in process monitoring camera footage, and plant confidentiality is covered in manufacturing data confidentiality. Keep this recording distinct from monitoring individuals. A task recording made to study how a task is performed should not be used to rate individual workers, and a specification can say so.
Acceptance checks for a safety-constrained session
- Completed site-constraints sheet received before the first recording day, with the plant's named contact.
- Each clip's metadata states recording mode (live, stopped-line staged, mockup) and camera mount type.
- Recorded footage shows no restricted zone breach by the crew; any plant-flagged incident is disclosed to the buyer with the delivery, not omitted.
- Masked or excluded areas are listed, with a statement of whether masking touches task-relevant regions.
- Any deviation from the capture plan caused by a safety limit is logged, with the affected task steps.
These checks are about documentation and honesty of metadata. They do not certify that a session was safe or compliant, and a buyer should not claim that they do.
What this specification cannot support
Safe, well-documented video of manual work does not become robot training data for control. It holds no joint states, commanded actions or contact forces; humanoid control needs robot or teleoperation data, or purpose-built handheld or instrumented capture, not footage alone. Safety constraints also trim what the video shows. Staged takes under-represent live interruptions, and cameras kept outside guarded envelopes see less of the work point.
The specification also does not tell you whether a robot may later work in the same cell. That decision belongs to the plant's own risk assessment and the robot's integrator, and nothing recorded here substitutes for it. For general limits on what recordings teach, see when video is not enough.
Questions to ask suppliers
- Who at the plant signs off the site-constraints sheet, and can we see it before scheduling?
- Which areas, machines and parts are excluded from recording, and who decided?
- Does the crew's plan include any activity near energized or guarded equipment, and has the plant said whether its written energy-control procedures apply?
- How do you handle a stop request from plant staff mid-take, and is the lost data flagged?
- Which camera mounts did the plant approve, and does the metadata record the mount per clip?
- How are bystanders handled when they enter the frame, and what notice did they receive?
- Will you disclose any near-miss or plant-flagged event during recording, and in what form?
- If live production recording is prohibited, how does the staged setup differ from the live cell?
- Who holds the right to license footage that shows plant equipment, layout or customer parts?
Discuss your requirements
If you are specifying a collection on a manufacturing floor, describe the task, viewpoints and site constraints to SourceX. SourceX reviews the requirement and follows up about potential sources and next steps, including whether a commissioned collection is feasible; SourceX's role is sourcing, rights review, licensing and delivery coordination, and annotation or specialist capture are scoped case by case. A request does not guarantee a match. For the broader picture, start at the humanoid training data guide or the manufacturing and assembly data hub, and see SourceX's physical-world path for how new recordings of hands-on work are described on the site.
Describe the workplace demonstration data your robotics project needs
Sources
- 29 CFR 1910.147 The control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) — documented procedures for controlling hazardous energy during servicing; cited only to show a plant may hold such procedures.
- ISO 10218-1:2025 Robotics — Safety requirements — Part 1: Industrial robots — industrial robots as partly completed machinery; published alongside the integration part.