A robotic system includes a controller configured to obtain image data from one or more optical sensors and to determine one or more of a location and/or pose of a vehicle component based on the image data. The controller also is configured to determine a model of an external environment of the robotic system based on the image data and to determine tasks to be performed by components of the robotic system to perform maintenance on the vehicle component. The controller also is configured to assign the tasks to the components of the robotic system and to communicate control signals to the components of the robotic system to autonomously control the robotic system to perform the maintenance on the vehicle component.

Apparatuses, systems, and techniques are described that estimate the pose of an object while the object is being manipulated by a robotic appendage. In at least one embodiment, a sample-based optimization algorithm tracks in-hand object poses during manipulation via contact feedback and a GPU-accelerated robotic simulation is developed. In at least one embodiment, parallel simulations concurrently model object pose changes that may be caused by complex contact dynamics. In at least one embodiment, the optimization algorithm tunes simulation parameters during object pose tracking to further improve tracking performance. In various embodiments, real-world contact sensing may be improved by utilizing vision in-the-loop.

Methods and systems for modifying the inertial parameters used in a virtual robot model that simulates the interactions of a real-world robot with an environment to better reflect the actual inertial properties of the real-world robot. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining joint physical parameter measurements for the joints of a real-world robot, determining simulated joint physical parameter values for each of the joint physical parameter measurements, and adjusting an estimate of inertial properties of the real-world robot used by the virtual robot dynamic model to reduce a difference between the simulated joint physical parameter values and the corresponding joint physical parameter measurements.

The invention relates to a method and a robot (5) and/or robot controller (17) for validation of programmed workflow sequences and/or teaching programs (20) of the robot (5) in a work cell (2), wherein the robot (5) is preferably mounted on or next to a processing machine, in particular an injection molding machine (4), and designed for the extraction, handling, manipulation or further processing of injection-molded parts (3) which have just been produced. The robot controller (17) is designed to reproduce a virtual twin or robot model (21), respectively, in particular a virtual representation of the plant or work cell (2), respectively, at the output location, in particular a display or touch screen (16), whereby at least the injection molding machine is represented as part of the work cell, and further production resources of the plant or work cell (2), which are preferably automatically detected and represented.

A system for performing industrial tasks includes a robot and a computing device. The robot includes one or more sensors that collect data corresponding to the robot and an environment surrounding the robot. The computing device includes a user interface, a processor, and a memory. The memory includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive the collected data from the robot, generate a virtual recreation of the robot and the environment surrounding the robot, receive inputs from a human operator controlling the robot to demonstrate an industrial task. The system is configured to learn how to perform the industrial task based on the human operator's demonstration of the task, and perform, via the robot, the industrial task autonomously or semi-autonomously.

A mobile manipulator includes a moving apparatus, a manipulator that is connected to the moving apparatus, a controller configured to control the moving apparatus and the manipulator, and an environment acquisition sensor configured to acquire predetermined environmental data originating from an environment at the movement destination to which the mobile manipulator is moved by the moving apparatus in association with a position at the movement destination, and the controller controls at least one of the moving apparatus and the manipulator based on the environmental data.

Methods and systems for testing robotic systems in an environment blending both physical and virtual test environments are presented herein. A realistic, three dimensional physical environment for testing and evaluating a robotic system is augmented with simulated, virtual elements. In this manner, robotic systems, humans, and other machines dynamically interact with both real and virtual elements. In one aspect, a model of a physical test environment and a model of a virtual test environment are combined, and signals indicative of a state of the combined model are employed to control a robotic system. In a further aspect, a mobile robot present in a physical test environment is commanded to emulate movements of a virtual robot under control. In another further aspect, images of the virtual robot under control are projected onto the physical test environment to provide a visual representation of the presence and action taken by the virtual robot.

A control device estimates a position and pose of an imaging device relative to a robot based on an image of the robot captured by the imaging device. A simulation device arranges a robot model at a teaching point, and generates a simulation image of the robot model captured by a virtual camera that is arranged so that a position and pose of the virtual camera relative to the robot model in the virtual space coincide with the estimated position and pose of the imaging device. The control device determines an amount of correction of a position and pose of the robot for the teaching point so that the position and pose of the robot on the actual image captured after the robot has been driven according to a movement command to the teaching point approximate to the position and pose of the robot model on the simulation image.

A simulation device according to the present disclosure includes: a model arrangement unit which arranges three-dimensional models of a feeder, a robot and a receiving device in virtual space; a workpiece supply unit which arranges the three-dimensional model of the workpiece on the conveyor surface; and a robot operation control unit which causes the robot to operate so as to move the workpiece on the conveyor surface to over the receiving surface, in which the workpiece supply unit includes: a reference position calculation part which calculates a position and orientation of the workpiece to be newly arranged, according to set conditions; a workpiece area setting part which sets a workpiece area occupied by the workpiece; an interference area setting part which sets an interference area adjacent to the workpiece area; a display control part which displays a screen indicating the workpiece area and the interference area; and a supply position adjustment part which adjusts a relative position of the workpiece to be newly arranged, so that the workpiece area of the workpiece to be newly arranged does not overlap with the workpiece area and the interference area of the workpiece arranged previously.

A robotic system includes a controller configured to obtain image data from one or more optical sensors and to determine one or more of a location and/or pose of a vehicle component based on the image data. The controller also is configured to determine a model of an external environment of the robotic system based on the image data and to determine tasks to be performed by components of the robotic system to perform maintenance on the vehicle component. The controller also is configured to assign the tasks to the components of the robotic system and to communicate control signals to the components of the robotic system to autonomously control the robotic system to perform the maintenance on the vehicle component.