Intelligence guided system and method for fruits and vegetables processing includes a conveyor for carrying produces, various image acquiring and processing hardware and software, water and air jets for cutting and controlling the position and orientation of the produces, and a networking hardware and software, operating in synchronism in an efficient manner to attain speed and accuracy of the produce cutting and high yield and low waste produces processing. The 2nd generation strawberry decalyxing system (AVID2) uniquely utilizes a convolutional neural network (AVIDnet) supporting a discrimination network decision, specifically, on whether a strawberry is to be cut or rejected, and computing a multi-point cutline curvature to be cut along by rapid robotic cutting tool.

A method of processing objects using a programmable motion device is disclosed. The method includes the steps of providing an input conveyance system by which input bins of objects may be provided to a processing station that includes the programmable motion device that includes an end effector, perceiving at the processing station identifying indicia representative of an identity of a plurality of objects at an input area of the input conveyance system, grasping the an acquired object using the end effector, moving the acquired object toward an identified processing container using the programmable motion device, the identified processing container being associated with the identifying indicia and said identified processing container being provided as one of a plurality of processing containers at the processing station, and providing an output conveyance system in communication with the processing station, by which processing containers that contain processed objects may be provided.

There is provided systems and methods for picking up and transferring a variety of different types of merchandise, such as at shopping facilities. In one form, the system includes: a shopping facility with a merchandise order assembly area; an automated retrieval for transporting merchandise to the merchandise order assembly area; an image sensor; at least one robotic device including a plurality of end effectors for picking up merchandise; and a merchandise database identifying surface areas suitable for engagement with end effectors. The system also includes a control circuit that identifies a merchandise item being transported, receives images of the merchandise item and determines its orientation, chooses a surface area of the merchandise item for engagement, selects an end effector to be used to engage the merchandise item, and instructs movement and transfer of the merchandise item by the robotic device.

A three-dimensional detailed position/orientation estimation apparatus includes a first position/orientation estimation unit and a second position/orientation estimation unit that are configured to estimate three-dimensional position and orientation. The first position/orientation estimation unit optimizes six parameters (translations x, y, and z, and rotations , , and ) using 3D data, and the second position/orientation estimation unit optimizes only three parameters (translations x and y, and rotation ) that can be estimated with high accuracy using a 2D image, based on the result of the three-dimensional position/orientation estimation performed by the first position/orientation estimation unit using the 3D data.

A processing system including a singulation system is disclosed. The singulation system includes a conveying system for moving objects to be processed from a source area along a first direction, a detection system for detecting objects at the conveying system, and for selecting certain selected objects for redistribution on the conveying system, and a movement redistribution system for redistributing the certain selected objects on the conveying system for providing a singulated stream of objects.

A method for object tracking. The method includes capturing, using a camera device, a sequence of images of a scene, detecting, based on a pattern of local light change across the sequence of images, a light source in the scene, comparing, in response to detecting the light source, a location of the light source in at least one image of the sequence of images and a current position of a transport robot to generate a result, and generating, based on the result, a control signal for moving the transport robot toward the light source such that the light source aligns with a target position within the field-of-view.

A work robot system including a conveying apparatus that conveys an object in one direction; a robot that performs a predetermined task on a target portion of the object being conveyed by the conveying apparatus, a movement amount detector that sequentially detects the movement amount of the object moved by the conveying apparatus, and a force detector that detects a force generated by contact between a tool supported by the robot and the object. Then, when the predetermined task is performed, a controller performs force control based on a value detected by the force detector while performing control of the robot by use of information about the position of the target portion and a value detected by the movement amount detector.

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to track objects on a moving conveyor system. In some embodiments, an RFID based tracking system comprises a conveyor system to move and transport objects along a conveyance path, wherein each object includes a near field only RFID tag associated therewith and identifying the object. Each near field only RFID tag is not coupled to a far field antenna such that it is not readable in a far field of RFID communication and communicates only in a near field of RFID communication. An RFID tag reader is positioned to attempt to read the near field only RFID tag of each object. And a control circuit processes reads of the near field only RFID tags by the first RFID reader to determine an order of the objects being conveyed.

A system and method for simultaneously filling containers with different fluent products are disclosed. The system includes a plurality of vehicles that are independently routable along a track system to deliver containers to at least one unit operation station for dispensing fluent materials into the containers. The containers receive one or more fluent materials that differ from another in ingredients and/or weight percentage of at least one ingredient.

An article transfer device includes a robot configured to perform a workpiece picking operation; an image capturing device that captures an image of a workpiece on a conveyor; and a control unit, configured to execute, a workpiece identification process performing workpiece detection in the captured images; a workpiece information storage process storing workpiece information about a position and an angle of each detected workpiece in a storage device; and an identical workpiece determination process comparing the workpiece information of each of the detected workpieces in a newly captured image with the workpiece information of each of the detected workpieces in previously captured images, to determine whether the detected workpieces that are identical to the detected workpieces in the previously captured images exist in the newly captured image, to store in the storage device only the workpiece information of one of the images regarding the detected workpieces determined to be identical.