An article conveying system includes a tray that is disposed on a floor surface and on which an article to be conveyed is mounted, a robot provided with a force sensor that detects an external force, a frictional force reduction device provided in at least one of the floor surface or the tray, to adjust a frictional force between the floor surface and the tray, and a controller that controls the robot to apply a lateral load to the tray and thereby slide the tray on the floor surface, and controls the frictional force reduction device based on a magnitude of the external force in a direction of the lateral load that is detected by the force sensor when the lateral load is applied.

A computing system and method for estimating friction and/or center of mass (CoM) are presented. The system may perform the method by selecting at least one of: (i) a first joint from among a plurality of joints, or (ii) a first arm segment from among a plurality of arm segments. The computing system further outputs a set of one or more movement commands for causing robot arm movement that includes relative movement between the first arm segment and a second arm segment via the first joint, and receiving a set of actuation data and a set of movement data associated with the first joint or the first arm segment. The computing system further determines, based on the set of actuation data and the set of movement data, at least one of: (i) a friction parameter estimate or (ii) a CoM estimate.

An article conveying system includes a tray that is disposed on a floor surface and on which an article to be conveyed is mounted, a robot provided with a force sensor that detects an external force, a frictional force reduction device provided in at least one of the floor surface or the tray, to adjust a frictional force between the floor surface and the tray, and a controller that controls the robot to apply a lateral load to the tray and thereby slide the tray on the floor surface, and controls the frictional force reduction device based on a magnitude of the external force in a direction of the lateral load that is detected by the force sensor when the lateral load is applied.

A computing system and method for estimating friction and/or center of mass (CoM) are presented. The system may perform the method by selecting at least one of: (i) a first joint from among a plurality of joints, or (ii) a first arm segment from among a plurality of arm segments. The computing system further outputs a set of one or more movement commands for causing robot arm movement that includes relative movement between the first arm segment and a second arm segment via the first joint, and receiving a set of actuation data and a set of movement data associated with the first joint or the first arm segment. The computing system further determines, based on the set of actuation data and the set of movement data, at least one of: (i) a friction parameter estimate or (ii) a CoM estimate.

A computerized method for estimating joint friction in a joint of a robotic wrist of an end effector. Sensor measurements of force or torque in a transmission that mechanically couples a robotic wrist to an actuator, are produced. Joint friction in a joint of the robotic wrist that is driven by the actuator is computed by applying the sensor measurements of force or torque to a closed form mathematical expression that relates transmission force or torque variables to a joint friction variable. A tracking error of the end effector is also computed, using a closed form mathematical expression that relates the joint friction variable to the tracking error. Other aspects are also described and claimed.

A computing system and method are presented. The computing system may store sensor data which includes: (i) a set of movement data, and (ii) a set of actuation data. The computing system may divide the sensor data into training data and test data by: (i) selecting, as the training data, movement training data and corresponding actuation training data, and (ii) selecting, as the test data, movement test data and corresponding actuation test data. The computing system may determine, based on the movement training data and the actuation training data, at least one of: (i) a friction parameter estimate or (ii) a center of mass (CoM) estimate, and may determine actuation prediction data based on the movement test data and based on the at least one of the friction parameter estimate or the CoM estimate. The computing system may further determine residual data, and determine a value for an error parameter.

A method for drilling an element to be drilled by a drilling device and a cutting tool including drill margins and cutting edges. The method includes determining at least one load value representing overall drag due to internal friction of the drilling device and to friction of drill margins in the element to be drilled. Determining includes: stopping a drilling operation in progress; partial retraction of the cutting tool on a predetermined distance, the predetermined distance being chosen such that the cutting edges are no longer in contact with the element to be drilled; driving the cutting tool with predetermined cutting parameters; measuring at least one load value during the driving of the cutting tool with the cutting parameters before its cutting edges again come into contact with the element to be drilled and after stabilization of the load values, the measured load value representing the overall drag.

A device and method for easily detecting an abnormality of a joint part of a delta-type parallel link robot having a link ball structure, by estimating a friction torque of a ball joint of the robot. A controller of the robot has: a control section configured to control the motion of the robot; a torque measurement section configured to measure or calculate, during the robot is operated, an amount of change in a drive torque, based on a current value of the motor, before and after the robot represents a specified posture where a sign of a relative angular velocity between a ball and a housing of the ball joint is changed; and a judgment section configured to judge that, when the measured amount of change in the drive torque exceeds a predetermined threshold, a friction state of the ball joint corresponding to the motor is abnormal.

A method includes: acquiring time-series data of a control input and a control output; calculating a variable parameter that minimizes an evaluation function, based on observation values of the control input and the control output; and updating the variable parameter with the calculated variable parameter. The evaluation function includes: a first function part that evaluates an entire error that is a control error of the entire observation period and increases the output value as the entire error increases; and at least one of: a second function part that evaluates a sectional error that is a control error of a particular section in the observation period and increases the output value as the sectional error increases; and a third function part that evaluates an instantaneous error that is a control error of a particular time point in the observation period and increases the output value as the instantaneous error increases.

A method (1000) for condition monitoring is disclosed, comprising moving (1010) a machine component according to a cycle of a defined motion profile (PF) comprising generating (1040) a first distribution (T.sub.1, p.sub.1) of a measured force (T) causing an acceleration and/or of a measured motion parameter (p) associated with the movement of the machine component according to a defined motion profile, associating (1050) the first distribution with a first load response (L.sub.1), generating (1060) a second distribution (T.sub.2, p.sub.2) of associated registered (1070) values of said force and/or motion parameter subsequently measured when moving the machine component according to the cycle at a subsequent point in time, associating (1080) the second distribution with a second load response (L.sub.2), determining (1100) an amount of variation of a load component of a mechanical load on the machine component based on a difference between the first load response and the second load response.