Method for programming a force to be applied by a working end of a robot, along at least part of a preprogrammed path of the working end, the method comprising the steps of: —moving the working end of the robot over the said at least part of the preprogrammed path, the driving of the robot being feedback-controlled in order to keep the working end in position without a force setpoint, —at least at one position during the movement, having an operator apply to the working end a force which is the opposite of that which is to be applied during the task and which has an intensity proportionate to that which is to be applied during the task, —determining the force that is to be applied during the task from the resistive force exerted by the robot in order to keep the working end on the path, —storing in memory the force thus determined in relation to the position of the working end while the opposing force is being applied.

A medical observation device includes an imaging unit configured to photograph an image of an operation site, and a holding unit configured to be connected with the imaging unit and have rotary shafts which are operable with at least six degrees of freedom. Among the rotary shafts, at least two shafts are active shafts whose driving is controlled based on states of the rotary shafts, and at least one shaft is a passive shaft which is rotated according to direct external manipulation accompanying contact.

A positioning controller (50) including a forward predictive model (60) and/or inverse control predictive model (70) for positioning control of an interventional device (30) including a portion (40) of an interventional device. In operation, the controller (50) may apply the forward predictive model (60) to a commanded positioning motion of the interventional device (30) to render a predicted navigated pose of the end-effector (40), and generate positioning data informative of a positioning by the interventional device (30) of said portion of interventional device (40) to a target pose based on the predicted navigated pose of said portion (40). Alternatively, antecedently or subsequently, the controller (50) may apply the control predictive model (70) to the target pose of the portion of interventional device (40) to render a predicted positioning motion of the interventional device (30), and generate positioning commands controlling a positioning by the interventional device (30) of said device portion (40) to the target pose based on the predicted positioning motion of the interventional device (30).

A method and apparatus for controlling a robot is provided. In this robot, direct teaching can be performed while updating a position command on the basis of an applied external force. In the method and apparatus, a proximity region is set inside a boundary of an operation-allowed range of the robot, the proximity region being indicative of a proximity of the boundary. Stored is an external force applied when a monitoring point provided in the robot reaches the proximity region as a reference external force. And performed is comparing the reference external force with a current external force when a current position of the monitoring point is in the proximity region, to thereby determine a direction that facilitates movement away from the proximity region.

To provide a control device of a robot having an arm which causes the arm to be stopped more easily than conventionally by generating a load of appropriate magnitude to an operator during lead-through. The present invention relates to a control device of a robot having an arm, the control device including: a motor that generates torque in each axis of the robot; a torque generation control unit that controls the motor so as to generate a canceling torque which cancels friction of each axis of the robot when controlling the robot by external force tracking; and a torque changing unit that changes the canceling torque to a reference value or less.

A robot system with a hand-guiding function is disclosed. The robot system selects the hand-guiding function or non-hand-guiding function of an enable device by a mode option mechanism during the operation of a teach mode or an automatic mode. When selecting the hand-guiding function, the enable device has both the enabling and the hand-guiding function to easily hand-guiding the robot to operate.

System and method of learning and executing mutually coordinated paths of robot manipulators, including: manually guiding a first reference point of a first robot manipulator over a desired first path, acquiring the first path or acquiring a first set of poses for the first path and storing the first path or the first set of poses in a first data set, automatically traveling along the first path according to the first data set, while automatically traveling along the first path, manually guiding a second reference point of a second robot manipulator over a desired second path, acquiring the second path or acquiring a second set of poses for the second path and storing the second path or the second set of poses in a second data set, wherein the second data set is assigned to the first data set so that a location of the first path is at least approximately assigned to each location of the second path, and traveling along the first path by the first robot manipulator according to the first data set synchronized with traveling along the second path by the second robot manipulator according to the second data set.

System and method of learning and executing mutually coordinated paths of robot manipulators, including: manually guiding a first reference point of a first robot manipulator over a desired first path, acquiring the first path or acquiring a first set of poses for the first path and storing the first path or the first set of poses in a first data set, automatically traveling along the first path according to the first data set, while automatically traveling along the first path, manually guiding a second reference point of a second robot manipulator over a desired second path, acquiring the second path or acquiring a second set of poses for the second path and storing the second path or the second set of poses in a second data set, wherein the second data set is assigned to the first data set so that a location of the first path is at least approximately assigned to each location of the second path, and traveling along the first path by the first robot manipulator according to the first data set synchronized with traveling along the second path by the second robot manipulator according to the second data set.

A robot system that can perform cooperative work in accordance with an action of a person. A robot system according to the present disclosure includes a robot, a detection apparatus detecting a work object and detecting a predetermined action of a worker with respect to the work object, and a robot controller causing the robot to execute a predetermined work on the work object detected by the detection apparatus when the detection apparatus detects the predetermined action.

An assist device includes a first body-worn unit, second body-worn units, an actuator, a detection part, a controller configured to obtain an assist parameter for causing the actuator to generate a desired assist force, and perform control for causing the actuator to operate at an output corresponding to the assist parameter. When the user performs a forward leaning action, the controller obtains the assist parameter for providing the user with the assist force in a direction of bringing the user to an upright standing posture based on the tilt angle and a time-based change in the tilt angle. The controller is configured to further perform an assistance moderation process to reduce the assist force when the time-based change in the tilt angle increases.