A board work system including: a conveying and holding device including a pair of rails configured to support a board, and a changing mechanism configured to change a distance between the pair of rails, the conveying and holding device being configured to convey the board supported by the rails and hold the board at a work position; a work device configured to perform work with respect to the board held by the conveying and holding device from an underside of the board; a moving device configured to move the work device; and a control device, the control device including an acquiring section configured to acquire a rail spacing distance that is the distance between the pair of rails, and an operation control section configured to control operation of the moving device based on the rail spacing distance acquired by the acquiring section.

A method of processing objects is disclosed using a programmable motion device. The method includes the steps of acquiring an object from a plurality of mixed objects at an input area, perceiving identifying indicia in connection with the object, assigning an intermediate station to a destination location for the object responsive to the identifying indicia in connection with the object, and moving the acquired object toward the intermediate station.

A communication system facilitates a closed loop, two-way communication network between machines at a worksite and a remote processing facility. A management and control system receives operations data and generates recommended adjustments to the worksite operations. A manager system provides manager outputs over the communication network to adjust operations of the machines at the worksite based on the recommended adjustments.

A method for identifying workpieces that are distributed in a sorted manner to multiple workpiece collection units and brought to the workpiece collection units using an automation device. Included is identifying elements for emitting and receiving electromagnetic signals to and from transceiver units situated on the workpiece collection units to determine the position of the identifying elements from transit times of the electromagnetic signals between the transceiver units and the identifying elements. The identifying elements each bear information regarding the workpieces on the workpiece collection units. The identifying elements, which are provided by a delivery device and each bear information regarding the workpieces on the workpiece collection units, are brought from the location of a delivery device to a transfer zone in the working area of the automation device. The automation device brings each provided identifying element from the transfer zone to the associated workpiece collection unit.

Methods and systems for joint execution of complex tasks by a human and a robotic system are described herein. In one aspect, a collaborative robotic system includes a payload platform having a loading surface configured to carry a payload shared with a human collaborator. The collaborative robotic system navigates a crowded environment, while sharing a payload with the human collaborator. In another aspect, the collaborative robotic system measures forces in a plane parallel to the loading surface of the payload platform to infer navigational cues from the human collaborator. In some instances, the collaborative robotic system overrides the navigational cues of the human collaborator to avoid collisions between an object in the environment and any of the robotic system, the human collaborator, and the shared payload.

A data communication method for reducing a working time of an automated material handling system between a master communication device installed in an unmanned transfer device and a slave communication device installed in a manufacturing facility in the automated material handling system which transfers a carrier between manufacturing facilities through the unmanned transfer device where the method is to reduce a working time for a carrier by transmitting and receiving data to and from a manufacturing facility while an unmanned transfer device is stopped before performing a carrier work or while it is moving after performing a carrier work, when the unmanned transfer device and the manufacturing facility transmit and receive data for transferring the carrier by using a wireless data communicating device in an automated material handling system.

Manufacturing of article of footwear include temporarily mating a sole and an upper to determine processes to be performed to the sole and/or the upper before permanently mating. As specific operations are determined based on the particular combination of a sole and an upper, the sole and upper are individually tracked through the subsequent processes to ensure the correct pairing is achieved at the time of permanent mating. The tracking may leverage identifiers in the tooling supporting the upper and in the sole.

A mover is configured to be electromagnetically propelled along a track in a linear motor track system with a force that is calculated to include compensation for gravity. A multi-axis accelerometer arranged in each segment of the track can detect an orientation or angle of the track segment for determining gravity with respect to the particular section. As a result, if the track is at an incline, such as a ramp, a desired force for moving a mover along the track can be compensated to include gravity due to the incline for achieving a desired motion result. In addition, the detected orientation of the track can be compared to an expected orientation stored by a control program to avoid a loss of performance due to physical changes in the track not matching an expected/programmed configuration of the track.

A cart having a wheel and a cart-computing device communicatively coupled to the wheel, where the cart-computing device receives an electrical signal via the wheel. The electrical signal comprises a communication signal and electrical power. The communication signal corresponds to one or more instructions for controlling an operation of the cart and the electrical power of the electrical signal powers the cart-computing device.

A carriage transport system, including a transport path formed of a plurality of transporting modules; a plurality of lower-order controllers each configured to conduct drive control of a carriage on a covered transporting module among the plurality of transporting modules; and a higher-order controller configured to control the plurality of lower-order controllers, wherein the plurality of lower-order controllers each receive a drive instruction for the carriage on the transport path from the higher-order controller in advance, and when respectively receiving one-group transport instructions transmitted from the higher-order controller simultaneously at the same timing, the plurality of lower-order controllers each apply the drive instruction to one of the carriage that is present on the covered transporting module and the carriage that is to enter the covered transporting module in an order of entering the covered transporting module, to thereby conduct the drive control of the carriage.