A robot comprising: a chopstick, configured for at least four degrees of freedom of movement, a stiff body of shape and proportions approximate to a pool cue; an electromagnetic actuator, comprising a motor, for each degree of freedom of movement coupled with the stiff body, wherein the functional mapping from each actuator's motor current to torque output along an axis of motion is stored, and used in concert with a calibrated model of the robot for effective impedance control; and a 6-axis force/torque sensor mounted inline between the actuators and each chopstick.

An apparatus for adjusting a width of a rail mechanism is disclosed. The rail mechanism includes a fixed rail and a movable rail parallel with each other. The apparatus for adjusting the width includes: a base configured to be provided thereon with the fixed rail; a first guide rail provided on the base and configured to be installed with the movable rail, the movable rail being movable towards or away from the fixed rail along an axial direction of the first guide rail; a moving distance acquiring module configured to acquire a moving distance required for the movable rail to move from an initial position to a working position; and a driving assembly detachably connected with the movable rail and configured to drive the movable rail to move from the initial position to the working position based on the moving distance.

Systems, methods, and software are provided for automated item restocking using gantry robots and establishing safety barriers for retail work operation spaces in retail store environments. Robot controllers in communication with the gantry robots and barrier robots direct the autonomous movements thereof for transferring items between customer-accessible point of sale locations and customer-inaccessible storage, and for alternately restricting and enabling access to work operation spaces, respectively.

A plasma-torch cutting machine gantry moves in a first axis and the torch mounted through a pantograph to a drive box moves along the gantry in a second axis. The drive box rotates the torch about a third axis, and tilts the torch about a fourth axis. The drive box moves vertically in a fifth axis. The torch is mountable with tip at pantograph focal point or in an extended position. A controller firmware computes and apply offsets in the first, second and fifth axis to maintain the plasma torch tip in desired position despite the torch being mounted in extended position, rotation and tilt of the torch. In embodiments the torch is rotatable −/+90 degrees from vertical; and a laser scanner maps surfaces and edges of beams to determine movements and rotations for cutting beams.

A tactile and/or optical distance sensor includes a housing, which has at least one elongate portion, a measurement arm, which is arranged in the housing, at least partially extends through the elongate portion and has a tactile and/or an optical probe element at one end, a transducer, which is configured to capture a position of the tactile probe element or a signal of the optical probe element and to generate associated probe element measurement signals, and an advance unit, with which the housing is linearly dis-placeable along an advance direction. A strain sensor is located in the region of the measurement arm extending through the elongate portion or at an adjacent region directly adjoining said region. In addition, a system for measuring the roughness of a surface of a workpiece and a method for calibrating a distance sensor or a system are provided.

The technology relates to a memory insertion machine for inserting memory modules into memory sockets on a circuit board. The memory insertion machine may include one or more insertion rods moveably mounted to one or more vertical guides, one or more profilometers, and an insertion controller. The insertion controller may be configured to apply an insertion force to a memory module in a memory socket, by controlling the movement of the one or more insertion rods on the one or more vertical guides. The insertion controller may be further configured to determine, based on information received from the one or more profilometers, a measured distance between a top of the memory module and a top of the memory socket.

A system comprising: a database configured to store a multi-body model of a robot, the robot comprising a plurality of manipulators, and a plurality of joints and plurality of actuators and actuator motors configured to move the joints, and wherein the multi-body model includes a kinematic and geometric model of each manipulator, a catalog of models for objects to be manipulated, the models comprising a current configuration and a target configuration, and a functional mapping of sensory data to configurations of the robot and the manipulators needed to manipulate the objects; at least one hardware processor coupled with the database; and one or more software modules that, when executed by the at least one hardware processor, receive sensory data from within a constrained space, identify objects in the constrained space based on the received sensory data and the catalog of models, determine a target pose for the joints and the manipulators based on the sensory data and the current and target configurations associated with the identified object, and compute joint space positions to necessary to realize the target pose.

A robot comprising a chopstick, configured for at least four degrees of freedom of movement, a stiff body of shape and proportions approximate to a pool cue; an electromagnetic actuator, comprising a motor, for each degree of freedom of movement coupled with the stiff body, wherein the functional mapping from each actuator's motor current to torque output along an axis of motion is stored, and used in concert with a calibrated model of the robot for effective impedance control; and a 6-axis force/torque sensor mounted inline between the actuators and each chopstick.

A system comprises a database; at least one hardware processor coupled with the database; and one or more software modules that, when executed by the at least one hardware processor, receive at least one of sensory data from a robot and images from a camera, identify and build models of objects in an environment, wherein the model encompasses immutable properties of identified objects including mass and geometry, and wherein the geometry is assumed not to change, estimate the state including position, orientation, and velocity, of the identified objects, determine based on the state and model, potential configurations, or pre-grasp poses, for grasping the identified objects and return multiple grasping configurations per identified object, determine an object to be picked based on a quality metric, translate the pre-grasp poses into behaviors that define motor forces and torques, communicate the motor forces and torques to the robot in order to allow the robot to perform a complex behavior generated from the behaviors.

A machine or autonomous system includes a diagnostic controller and is configured to perform a method for monitoring health of a machine. The method includes monitoring a set of first electrical signals indicative of control of a motor of the machine while the machine is operated in a first autonomous mode, determining that an abnormal operating condition has occurred in response to the set of first electrical signals meeting a first criteria, having the machine operate in a test mode in response to the determination that the abnormal operating condition has occurred, monitoring a set of second electrical signals indicative of control of the motor during the test mode, and determining a fault condition in response to the set of second electrical signals meeting a second criteria.