There is provided an image processing apparatus, which are capable of controlling a motion of a robot with high accuracy without coding a complex robot motion control program point by point. First coordinate values being each of position coordinates of movement destinations of an end effector of a robot are acquired. Second coordinate values being position coordinates of a target are detected based on an image of the target captured at each of the movement destinations. Selections of a plurality of operations which a robot controller is made to execute are accepted out of a plurality of operations including at least an operation of moving the end effector to the first coordinate values or an operation of moving the end effector to the second coordinate values, to accept a setting of an execution sequence of the plurality of operations the selections of which have been accepted.

A robot control apparatus, which controls motions of an industrial robot based on processing results of an image processing apparatus which images the robot or objects around the robot, includes: a first communication unit which communicates with a computer for development as an external computer; a second communication unit which is connected to the image processing apparatus via a network; and a command processing unit which opens a communication port of the second communication unit and causes the second communication unit to start communication with the image processing apparatus via a server on the network in response to an open command received by the first communication unit.

An application processor processes an application. A sensor processor acquires image data from an image sensor and analyzes the image data. A motion controlling processor controls motion of a movable part of a robot. The motion controlling processor provides posture information for specifying an orientation of the image sensor to the sensor processor, not via the application processor. The posture information includes information for specifying a position of the image sensor.

One variation of a method for monitoring growth of plants within a facility includes: aggregating global ambient data recorded by a suite of fixed sensors, arranged proximal a grow area within the facility, at a first frequency during a grow period; extracting intermediate outcomes of a set of plants, occupying a module in the grow area, from module-level images recorded by a mover at a second frequency less than the first frequency while interfacing with the module during the period of time; dispatching the mover to autonomously deliver the module to a transfer station; extracting intermediate outcomes of the set of plants from plant-level images recorded by the transfer station while sequentially transferring plants out of the module at the conclusion of the grow period; and deriving relationships between ambient conditions, intermediate outcomes, and final outcomes from a corpus of plant records associated with plants grown in the facility.

A robot system includes a robot, an image capture apparatus, an image processing portion, and a control portion. The image processing portion is configured to specify in an image of a plurality of objects captured by the image capture apparatus, at least one area in which a predetermined object having a predetermined posture exists, and obtain information on position and/or posture of the predetermined object in the area. The control portion is configured to control the robot, based on the information on position and/or posture of the predetermined object, for the robot to hold the predetermined object.

A robot system includes a robot, an image capture apparatus, an image processing portion, and a control portion. The image processing portion is configured to specify in an image of a plurality of objects captured by the image capture apparatus, at least one area in which a predetermined object having a predetermined posture exists, and obtain information on position and/or posture of the predetermined object in the area. The control portion is configured to control the robot, based on the information on position and/or posture of the predetermined object, for the robot to hold the predetermined object.