A system and method for determining a minimum distance between an object and an apparatus surface, in particular for determining a minimum distance between an object and an apparatus surface of a handling apparatus, is described. A primary distance of the object is captured as the distance of the object by a distance sensor unit in or on the apparatus surface. A critical point which is at the primary distance from the distance sensor unit and is within a capture range of the distance sensor unit and comes closest to the apparatus surface taking into account a spatial course of the latter is also determined. A minimum distance between the critical point and the apparatus surface is determined.

A robotic gripping device is provided. The robotic gripping device includes a palm and a plurality of digits coupled to the palm. The robotic gripping device also includes a time-of-flight sensor arranged on the palm such that the time-of-flight sensor is configured to generate time-of-flight distance data in a direction between the plurality of digits. The robotic gripping device additionally includes an infrared camera, including an infrared illumination source, where the infrared camera is arranged on the palm such that the infrared camera is configured to generate grayscale image data in the direction between the plurality of digits.

An operation processor of the motion trajectory generation apparatus specifies the target object by extracting first point cloud data that corresponds to the target object from a depth image in the vicinity of the target object acquired by a depth image sensor, excludes the first point cloud data from second point cloud data, which is point cloud data in the vicinity of the target object, in the depth image, estimates, using the second point cloud data after the first point cloud data has been excluded, third point cloud data, which is point cloud data that corresponds to an obstacle that is present in a spatial area from which the first point cloud data is excluded in the depth image, and supplements the estimated third point cloud data in the spatial area from which the first point cloud data is excluded, and generates the plan of the motion trajectory.

A robotic gripping device is provided. The robotic gripping device includes a palm and a plurality of digits coupled to the palm. The robotic gripping device also includes a time-of-flight sensor arranged on the palm such that the time-of-flight sensor is configured to generate time-of-flight distance data in a direction between the plurality of digits. The robotic gripping device additionally includes an infrared camera, including an infrared illumination source, where the infrared camera is arranged on the palm such that the infrared camera is configured to generate grayscale image data in the direction between the plurality of digits.

A tool posture control apparatus includes a robot which supports a tool for performing a predetermined task on a target object, the robot capable of changing posture of the tool; a sensor supported by the robot; and a control device which changes the posture of the tool by controlling the robot, where the sensor measures a distance between the target object and a respective at a plurality of measurement reference positions around the tool, and the control device performs posture control process of controlling the robot in such a way that a measured-distance difference that is a difference between the distances measured by the sensor comes close to a target value.

A control device comprising a processor that is configured to execute computer-executable instructions so as to control an arm included in a robot, wherein the processor is configured to perform work on a target using a tool that performs work on the target and a distance meter that measures a measurement value according to a relative distance between a first position of the target and the tool, wherein the first position includes a portion overlapping with the tool when viewed from a direction toward the target from the tool.

A system and method for determining a minimum distance between an object and an apparatus surface, in particular for determining a minimum distance between an object and an apparatus surface of a handling apparatus, is described. A primary distance of the object is captured as the distance of the object by a distance sensor unit in or on the apparatus surface. A critical point which is at the primary distance from the distance sensor unit and is within a capture range of the distance sensor unit and comes closest to the apparatus surface taking into account a spatial course of the latter is also determined. A minimum distance between the critical point and the apparatus surface is determined.

A robot controller able to automatically set an motion range for a robot, in which the robot and an obstacle, such as a peripheral device, do not interfere with each other. The robot controller includes a depth acquisition section acquiring a group of depth data representing depths from a predetermined portion of the robot to points on the surface of an object around the robot, a robot position acquisition section acquiring three-dimensional position information of the predetermined portion, a depth map generator generating depth map information including three-dimensional position information of the points with using the group of depth data and the three-dimensional position information, and an interference region setting section estimating the range occupied by the object from the depth map information and setting the range as an interference region.

A terminal device includes a coordinate-system setting portion which sets a user coordinate system on the basis of a marker included in an image, photographed by a photographing portion, including an industrial robot and a work space of the industrial robot, a coordinate giving portion which gives a coordinate of the user coordinate system to point-group data obtained by a distance measuring portion which measures a distance to an object included in the image, a region specifying portion which specifies a robot region on the user coordinate system corresponding to the industrial robot on the basis of shape size information of the industrial robot corresponding to a type of the industrial robot and attitude information of the industrial robot, and a point-group creating portion for avoidance which creates point-group data for interference avoidance by removing the point-group data included in the robot region from the point-group data obtained by the distance measuring portion.

A controller used for irradiating a laser beam to an object from a machining head at a reference gap position is provided. The controller includes a gap sensor for detecting an amount of gap between the machining head and the object, a gap position command calculation part for producing a gap position command, a servo mechanism for driving the machining head to the reference gap position, a servo position deviation reading part for reading an amount of position deviation of the servo mechanism, a position gain calculation part for calculating a corrected position gain of the servo mechanism, based on the amount of position deviation of the servo mechanism and a position gain replacing part for replacing the position gain of the servo mechanism with the corrected position gain.