Various examples are directed to systems and methods for operating a vehicle comprising a tractor and a trailer attached for pulling behind the tractor. A center-of-mass system may determine a mass of the trailer and a tractor understeer. The center-of-mass system may determine the tractor understeer using steering input data describing a steering angle of the tractor and yaw data describing a yaw of the tractor. The center-of-mass system may determine a load center of mass using the tractor understeer and a mass of the trailer. The center-of-mass system may further determine that the load center of mass transgresses a center-of-mass threshold and send an alert message indicating that the load transgresses the load center-of-mass threshold.

The invention relates to a method for determining the mass and the center of gravity location of a load (10) of a moving system (12), particularly of a machine tool (14), which comprises a support (20) that is for accommodating the load (10) and is able to rotate around a first axis (16) and a second axis (18) as well as electronically controlled drive units (22, 24) for rotating the support (20) around the first axis (16) and around the second axis (18), wherein a total moment of inertia and a holding torque with regard to the first axis (16) are determined in a loaded state; a total moment of inertia and a holding torque with regard to the second axis (18) are determined in the loaded state; and the mass and the center of gravity location of the load (10) relative to the support (20) are determined based on the total moments of inertia and the holding torques with regard to the first axis (16) and second axis (18). The invention also relates to a moving system (12), which is equipped to determine the mass and the center of gravity location of a load (10) according to such a method.

A portable lighting tower includes a frame, a mast coupled to the frame including a light, a plurality of legs coupled to the frame, each leg including an actuator operable to deploy and retract the respective leg, a controller operatively coupled to the actuators and configured to control operation of the actuators, and a tilt sensor operably coupled to the controller and configured to generate a tilt signal indicative of a tilt of the portable lighting tower relative to horizontal. The controller is configured to determine a grade of the portable lighting tower based on the tilt signal, determine an extended length of each leg based on the determined grade of the portable lighting tower, and, after determining the extended length of each leg, operate each of the actuators to deploy the respective leg from a storage configuration to the determined extended length.

A device for moving an object comprises a base and a platform able to receive the object; six supports each having an upper end connected to the platform and a lower end connected to the base and an actuation device connected to at least three of the supports. The upper end and lower end of each support in combination have at least five degrees of freedom. The actuation device is suited for giving predefined periodic movements to said at least three of the six supports, these three supports being called controlled supports, thus giving a periodic movement to the platform relative to the base with at least three degrees of freedom.

A device, a method and a program, by which a weight and/or a position of a gravity center of a load attached to a movable part of a robot can be estimated by a simple configuration. The device has a torque sensor configured to detect a torque applied to an axis for driving the movable part of the robot, and a calculation section configured to calculate the weight of the article, by using: a first torque applied to the axis, when the article attached to the movable part is positioned at a first position and represents a first posture; a second torque applied to the axis, when the article attached to the movable part is positioned at a second position different from the first position and represents the first posture; the first position; and the second position.

A haptic feedback system to stimulate physical sensation of handling a fluid in virtual spaces. The system includes a physical vessel containing a solid object and mechanical means to move the solid object therein, a virtual reality module to track a position of the physical vessel and a corresponding virtual vessel, logic to simulate a fluid contained in the virtual vessel based on the tracked position of the virtual vessel, logic to calculate coordinates of a center of gravity for the simulated fluid based on the tracked position of the virtual vessel, logic to translate the calculated coordinates of the center of gravity for the simulated fluid into cylindrical coordinates to which to move the solid object in the physical vessel, and logic to send instructions to the mechanical means to move the solid object in the physical vessel based on the cylindrical coordinates to shift the weight of the physical vessel in accordance with the center of gravity of the simulated fluid in the virtual vessel.

An apparatus that detects a tilt, lean, movement and/or rotation and/or change in tilt, lean, position and/or rotation of a user, rider, and/or payload which may use sensors configured to accomplish this detection, where sensors may be on, embedded in and/or attached to a structural device, strap, and/or surface of a vehicle, structure or system, where an apparatus of the present invention may be on, part of, in, attached to or connected to a vehicle, structure or system where detecting, measuring and/or determining a lean, tilt, movement and/or rotation or change thereof, of a user, rider, and/or payload, may be desirable; position or movement and/or center of mass or change thereof may be calculated, or detected; calculations, measurements, metrics or detections from the present invention may be an output or the only output of an apparatus that is an embodiment of the present invention.

An apparatus and method of indicating the ball center of gravity position. The method of indicating the ball center of gravity position includes the following step of: moving the ball to a rotating member of a rotating device; driving the rotating member to rotate the ball along a axis of rotation of the rotating device, and adjust the center of gravity of the ball corresponding to the position of the rotating device; moving the ball onto a first carrier of a first transport device; and marking an identification mark on a predetermined area of the ball.

A method of moving material, using a first machine, from a first location to a second location, the second location being a dump bed of a second machine. The method includes determining, by a controller of the first machine, a type of a material to be moved, sending, by the controller of the first machine, the material type to a controller of the second machine, determining, by a controller of the second machine, a load distribution on the dump bed based on the material, determining, by the controller of the second machine, a first position of the dump bed at which a first dump should be unloaded from the first machine, and sending, by the controller of the second machine, an identification of the first position to the controller of the first machine.

A portable lighting tower includes a frame, an adjustable mast, multiple legs, a controller, and a battery pack. The adjustable mast is coupled to the frame and includes a light. The multiple legs each include an actuator operable to deploy and retract the respective leg. The controller is operatively coupled to the light and the actuators and configured to control operation of the light and the actuators. The battery pack is electrically coupled to the controller, the light, and the actuators. The light is dimmable between a maximum setting and a minimum setting, and the controller operates each of the linear actuators to deploy or retract the respective leg response to a user input.