Application of Ratings

Foreword. This Standard governs what happens to a rating after it is issued: how it is read on its face, how long it stands, how it extends to variants, what happens when the governing documents change across editions, and how it is contested or withdrawn. It follows the precedent of Euro NCAP’s Application of Star Ratings protocol (a dedicated, versioned document owning issued-rating validity) and S&P’s Under-Criteria-Observation propagation. In the VRS 2026 model the only published verification signal is the tier (Unverified, Verified, Certified); every rating carries its edition stamp; and the IR scale is absolute and additive (VRS-GEN-004 §8). Requirements use “shall”; recommendations use “should”.

Introduction

An issued rating is not a static label; it is a maintained opinion that must track the unit it describes and the documents it was earned under. A rating whose basis has silently drifted — the specification changed, the governing edition was superseded, the evidence was retracted — misprices risk exactly when precision matters. This Standard therefore treats the period after issuance as a governed lifecycle with recorded states, mirroring the machinery that mature schemes already run: the surveillance-and-withdrawal cycle of accredited product and management-system certification (ISO/IEC 17065:2012; ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015), the review-and-disclosure duties of credit-rating regimes (IOSCO FR05/2015; Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009), the continued-validity survey cycle of classification and airworthiness bodies (IACS maintenance-of-class), and the same-edition discipline of consumer safety rating (Euro NCAP). Every state defined here is recorded in the Robot Risk Passport and Registry (VRS-GEN-009) so that an underwriter or lender relying on a rating can see, on the day of reliance, whether it still stands, at what tier, and under which edition. Ratings remain opinions above the compliance floor, not certifications, and are not published at this stage.

1 Scope

This Standard defines: rating identity and display (Clause 4); validity (Clause 5); variant extension (Clause 6); the Under-Edition-Review state (Clause 7); appeals (Clause 8); and withdrawal (Clause 9). It excludes how ratings are computed (VRS-GEN-005/006), how the Unverified path is run (VRS-GEN-204), how editions change (VRS-GEN-004), and how rated parties may advertise a rating (VRS-GEN-010).

2 Normative references

• VRS-GEN-004, Change, Edition and Review Policy (undated) — additive editions, the refresh model, and propagation of change to outstanding ratings.
• VRS-GEN-005, Intrinsic Rating; VRS-GEN-006, AR Scheme (undated) — the scales this Standard displays and the applicability states.
• VRS-GEN-009, Robot Risk Passport and Registry Schema (undated) — where every state in this Standard is recorded.
• VRS-GEN-010, Mark and Advertising Rules (undated) — how a displayed rating may be used.
• VRS-GEN-011, Public Comment and Errata (undated) — the appeal-disposition window.
• VRS-GEN-204, Unverified Rating Procedure (undated) — the public-evidence route a withdrawn or never-rated model×sector re-enters.

3 Terms and definitions

Per VRS-GEN-001 (including tier, edition stamp, rung, pool and null result), and — for the certification-lifecycle states this Standard reuses — consistent with the vocabulary of ISO/IEC 17000:2020 (surveillance, suspension, withdrawal). Locally: rating record (the registry entry for one model’s IR or one model×sector AR); variant (a model configuration differing from the assessed specification); derived rating (a rating extended to a variant by analysis and linked to a parent, 6.2); maintained rating (a rating held valid only while a continued-validity sector’s scheduled surveillance obligations are met, 5.2); Under-Edition-Review (the state entered when a major change to a governing document affects a rating’s basis, Clause 7). “No current rating” is the applicability state a model×sector returns to when a rating lapses or is withdrawn (VRS-GEN-006 §5).

4 Rating identity and display

4.1 Every rating shall be recorded and displayed on its face with three elements: the edition it was earned under, the tier that verifies it, and — for an AR — the sector. An IR is shown as IR <n> (VRS 20xx) — <Tier> and an AR as <Sector> AR: <letter> (VRS 20xx) — <Tier>, where <Tier> is one of Unverified, Verified or Certified and the AR tier is never higher than the IR tier (VRS-GEN-004 §6.3). The registry (VRS-GEN-009) shall additionally hold the issue date to day precision.

4.2 Reading a rating statement. A reader parses each statement into scale, edition and verification, and reads an em-dash sector as not applicable, never as a poor letter.

4.3 What the tier tells a buyer or insurer. The tier is the only published verification signal (PRD §2.5); it does not change the meaning of the number or letter — the points and letters mean the same thing at every tier — but it records how strongly the result is evidenced.

• Unverified — Veyrum assessed the model from public evidence with no manufacturer involvement, following the procedure in VRS-GEN-204; the AR letter reaches at most A.
• Verified — the manufacturer supplied a complete information pack under officer attestation; the AR letter reaches at most AA.
• Certified — the Verified pack plus a witnessed demonstration on a production-representative unit; the AR letter reaches up to AAA.

A buyer or insurer shall therefore read a higher tier as a stronger, more independently checked basis for the same score, and shall read the tier together with the field record (4.7).

4.4 Mixed-tier models. A tier attaches to a rating, not to a model. A model may hold, at the same time, IR 312 (VRS 2026) — Certified, Industrial AR: AA (VRS 2026) — Certified, Logistics AR: A (VRS 2026) — Verified, and Aerial AR: —. Each rating displays its own tier; each AR tier shall be no higher than the IR tier (VRS-GEN-004 §6.3). Sectors are independent — a rating in one sector implies nothing about another, and a model may carry any mix of Certified, Verified, Unverified and no-rating across its applicable sectors.

4.5 Cross-edition comparison. Because the IR scale is absolute and additive (VRS-GEN-004 §8.1), an IR number means the same quality in every edition and IR numbers are comparable across editions; the edition stamp records which criterion table produced the number, and therefore the ceiling then in force. AR letters are a fixed percentage of the sector’s available points in the issuing edition (VRS-GEN-006) and are read as letters on the scale C < B < A < AA < AAA. A display shall always carry the edition stamp so that a reader can see the scale in force.

4.6 Scope not implied. A display shall not imply a scope it does not have: an IR shall not be shown as if it were sector-specific, and an AR shall carry its sector and its letter. Mark and advertising rules are governed by VRS-GEN-010; “Certified” is a tier of rating, not a safety certification, and shall be shown with that disclaimer (VRS-GEN-010).

4.7 Field-record annotation. The model’s public field record — incidents, recalls, safety notices — shall be displayed alongside the rating and maintained independently of it (VRS-GEN-004 §7.5), so that a reader sees post-issuance experience next to the opinion. A field record is not a score and shall not silently alter a rating; a material safety event instead feeds the withdrawal and downgrade triggers of Clause 9.

4.8 Applicability to the assessed specification. A rating applies only to the specification assessed; a material configuration change voids applicability to the changed unit until the rating is extended (Clause 6) or the unit is re-assessed. A material change is one that would be expected to alter the awarded result of any IR or AR criterion (the major change test, VRS-GEN-004 §3), recorded by the assessor as the extension rule (6.1).

5 Validity

5.1 No expiry. A rating does not expire on a fixed clock (VRS-GEN-004 §7.1). Every rating shows its issue date, edition and tier, and remains valid until it is refreshed (VRS-GEN-004 §7.3), placed Under-Edition-Review (Clause 7), or withdrawn (Clause 9). Refresh is incentivised by edition growth — a later edition adds headroom at the top of the IR scale — and by reduced re-rating fees, not compelled by an expiry date.

5.2 Continued-validity sectors (AER, MAR, SPC). In sectors whose annex invokes the continued-validity module, a rating is maintained, not merely dated: it stays valid only while that sector’s scheduled surveillance obligations are met, and lapses to no current rating when they are not. This is the classification-society and airworthiness pattern — the IACS maintenance-of-class cycle (a Special Survey at 5-year intervals renews class; class lapses if surveys are missed) and the surveillance audits that keep an ISO/IEC 17065:2012 or ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 certificate live. The surveillance cadence lives in the sector annex (single source); this Standard defines only the maintained-versus-lapsed state and its registry recording.

5.3 A lapsed rating shall be displayed as lapsed, never silently as current, and the registry (VRS-GEN-009) shall record the date the state changed and the reason.

6 Variant extension

6.1 A rating may be extended to a variant or partner configuration by engineering analysis plus targeted spot-assessment, without a full re-assessment, when the assessor records that the differences do not materially affect the rated dimensions. The recorded extension rule shall name which dimensions were checked and why the delta is immaterial, so that a third-party assessor could reach the same conclusion from the same evidence.

6.2 An extended rating shall be recorded as a derived rating linked to its parent (never a silent copy); it carries the parent’s edition, tier and letters, and lapses if the parent is withdrawn or lapses.

6.3 Extension shall not be used to cross an edition boundary or to claim headroom added by an additive scale expansion (VRS-GEN-004 §4.4); a variant assessed under a superseded edition shall be stamped to that edition, not silently carried into the current one.

7 Under-Edition-Review

7.1 When a change to the governing documents would alter the awarded result of any IR or AR criterion for an outstanding rating — a major change in the sense of VRS-GEN-004 §7.2 — each affected rating record shall enter Under-Edition-Review, visibly flagged in the registry, and shall be re-reviewed within the window declared in that change’s Summary of Changes (VRS-GEN-004 §9). Editorial corrections and corrigenda do not trigger review. This is the S&P Under-Criteria-Observation propagation pattern.

7.2 Review outcomes: reaffirmed (optionally re-stamped to the new edition), adjusted (re-scored against the changed criterion and re-stamped), or withdrawn to no current rating (Clause 9). The outcome and its rationale shall be recorded in the passport history (VRS-GEN-009).

7.3 An Under-Edition-Review rating remains displayable with its flag; it is not suspended by default. A rating shall not remain Under-Edition-Review past the declared window without a recorded reason.

8 Appeals

8.1 A rated party may contest a rating through a defined appeal: written grounds, review by an assessor not involved in the original assessment (IOSCO FR05/2015 independence principle), and a recorded disposition.

8.2 An appeal shall never be resolvable by commercial pressure (VRS-GEN-003 §6); fee arrangements are unaffected by appeal outcomes in either direction.

8.3 An appeal disposition shall be reasoned and issued within the target window of VRS-GEN-011 §6.3 (which owns that constant); where it reveals a methodology defect it shall feed the public comment record (VRS-GEN-011 §6.4), so that a defect found through one rating is fixed for all.

9 Withdrawal

9.1 A rating shall be withdrawn or downgraded when: an attestation supporting it is materially false; supporting evidence is retracted or falsified; there is an unremediated major safety incident; the mark is persistently misused (VRS-GEN-010); or the rated party requests withdrawal (VRS-GEN-004 §7.4). This mirrors the withdrawal triggers of accredited certification (ISO/IEC 17065:2012) and the withdrawal-with-disclosure duty of credit-rating regimes (Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009).

9.2 Withdrawal shall be recorded, dated, and — once the scheme publishes — public in the registry; a withdrawn rating’s history is retained (the record is never erased).

9.3 Withdrawal for evidence retraction returns the model×sector to no current rating (VRS-GEN-006 §5); re-rating follows the normal evidence path, via VRS-GEN-204 for the Unverified route.

10 Worked example

Illustrative only; no real robot holds a Veyrum rating. An industrial manipulator model earns IR 312 (VRS 2026) — Certified and, in the sectors it serves, Industrial AR: AA (VRS 2026) — Certified and Logistics AR: A (VRS 2026) — Verified; it is not marketed for aerial use, so Aerial AR: — (Clause 4.2–4.4). Each AR tier is no higher than the IR tier. The registry shows the issue date to day precision and displays the model’s field record beside the rating (4.7); an underwriter reads the tier as the verification signal and the field record as post-issuance experience.

The manufacturer ships a variant with a stiffer wrist but an identical safety-related control system. The assessor performs engineering analysis plus a targeted spot-assessment, records that no rated dimension moves, and issues a derived rating linked to the parent (Clause 6.1–6.2) — not a fresh assessment. The derived rating carries the parent’s edition, tier and letters.

The 2027 edition then amends one IR criterion’s (prior) threshold, its derivation recorded in VRS-GEN-202. Because the recalibrated prior would change the awarded result of that criterion for this model, the rating is a major change case (VRS-GEN-004 §7.2): both parent and derived rating enter Under-Edition-Review (Clause 7.1), flagged in the registry, to be re-reviewed within the window named in the amendment’s Summary of Changes. On review the rating is re-scored and re-stamped IR 309 (VRS 2027) — Certified (adjusted, Clause 7.2); the earlier IR 312 (VRS 2026) still means exactly what it meant, and 312 and 309 sit on the same absolute scale (Clause 4.5). The rationale is written to the passport history.

The manufacturer contests the three-point move through the appeal path (Clause 8): a non-involved assessor reviews the written grounds and records a reasoned disposition upholding the score, with fee arrangements unaffected in either direction.

Later, a supplier’s test report underpinning the safety evidence is retracted. The rating is withdrawn (Clause 9.1); the affected model×sector returns to no current rating (Clause 9.3), and the dated withdrawal plus full history are retained in the registry. Nothing in the sequence required a value to be changed in a document: every threshold lives in VRS-GEN-005 and its data twin, and every state transition is a recorded registry event.

Bibliography

• ISO/IEC 17000:2020, Conformity assessment — Vocabulary and general principles — surveillance/suspension/withdrawal state vocabulary. https://www.iso.org/standard/73029.html
• ISO/IEC 17065:2012, Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services (confirmed 2024) — surveillance and withdrawal of certification. https://www.iso.org/standard/46568.html
• ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015, Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems — Part 1 — surveillance audits maintain a certificate. https://www.iso.org/standard/61651.html
• IOSCO, Code of Conduct Fundamentals for Credit Rating Agencies, FR05/2015 (March 2015; first issued 2004) — rating review, reviewer independence, withdrawal disclosure. https://www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD482.pdf
• Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 on credit rating agencies (OJ L 302, 17.11.2009), consolidated. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/1060
• Euro NCAP, Application of Star Ratings, v17 — a dedicated versioned document owning continued validity of an issued rating. https://cdn.euroncap.com/cars/assets/euro_ncap_application_of_star_ratings_v17_3ab37e9313.pdf
• Euro NCAP, Rating Review 2023 (approved by the Board of Directors, December 2023) — governed, published, same-edition-disciplined rating change. https://cdn.euroncap.com/cars/assets/euro_ncap_rating_review_2023_0430214852.pdf
• IACS, Unified Requirement Z18 (Rev.8, 2018), maintenance of class / Special Survey at 5-year intervals — the continued-validity survey-cycle precedent. https://iacs.org.uk/

Change history