A pallet building apparatus for automatically building a pallet load of pallet load article units onto a pallet support including a frame defining a pallet building base, at least one articulated robot to transport and place the pallet load article units, a controller to control articulated robot motion and effect therewith a pallet load build, at least one three-dimensional, time of flight, camera to generate three-dimensional imaging of the pallet support and pallet load build, wherein the controller registers, from the three-dimensional camera, real time three-dimensional imaging data embodying different corresponding three-dimensional images of the pallet support and pallet load build, to determine, in real time, from the corresponding real time three-dimensional imaging data, a pallet support variance or article unit variance and generate in real time an articulated robot motion signal, the articulated robot motion signal being generated real time so as to be performed real time by the at least one articulated robot between placement of at least one pallet load article unit and a serially consecutive pallet load article unit enabling substantially continuous building of the pallet load build.

A method, apparatus, system, and computer program product for positions a wire contact. A sequence of images of a wire contact is generated while the wire contact moves from a first position to a second position. The sequence of images is generated by the camera system connected to the end effector and the wire contact is held by the end effector. Edges are detected in the sequence of images to form edge images. Background edges are removed from the edges in the edge images leaving contact edges in the edges for the wire contact to form a contact edge image. The wire contact is identified using the contact edges in the contact edge image. A pose of the wire contact is determined from the wire contact identified in the contact edge image.

A method for operating a medical-robotic device is provided. The robotic device includes a number of components able to be moved autonomously in an environment of the robotic device. Planning data for an autonomous movement or constraint of at least one subset of the movable components is provided to the robotic device. A movement or constraint of the corresponding movable components to be carried out autonomously by the robotic device is planned based on the planning data provided. The planned movement or constraint is visually presented. A way for an operator to exert influence on the planned movement or constraint is provided, and the movement or constraint is autonomously carried out as a function of the influence exerted.

A pallet building apparatus for automatically building a pallet load of pallet load article units onto a pallet support including a frame defining a pallet building base, at least one articulated robot to transport and place the pallet load article units, a controller to control articulated robot motion and effect therewith a pallet load build, at least one three-dimensional, time of flight, camera to generate three-dimensional imaging of the pallet support and pallet load build, wherein the controller registers, from the three-dimensional camera, real time three-dimensional imaging data embodying different corresponding three-dimensional images of the pallet support and pallet load build, to determine, in real time, from the corresponding real time three-dimensional imaging data, a pallet support variance or article unit variance and generate in real time an articulated robot motion signal, the articulated robot motion signal being generated real time so as to be performed real time.

Provided is a processing apparatus for determining a work to be picked by a robot from a plurality of works, using an image, captured by an image capture device, of an area on which the plurality of works are placed. The apparatus selects a pickable candidate work based on the image, and determines a picking target work positioned in a partial area assigned with a highest priority among the partial areas where candidate works are respectively positioned. The apparatus selects a next pickable candidate work whose position and orientation have changed within allowable ranges before and after picking, and determines a next picking target work positioned in the partial area assigned with the highest priority among the partial areas where the next pickable candidate works are respectively positioned.

A pallet building apparatus for automatically building a pallet load of pallet load article units onto a pallet support including a frame defining a pallet building base, at least one articulated robot to transport and place the pallet load article units, a controller to control articulated robot motion and effect therewith a pallet load build, at least one three-dimensional, time of flight, camera to generate three-dimensional imaging of the pallet support and pallet load build, wherein the controller registers, from the three-dimensional camera, real time three-dimensional imaging data embodying different corresponding three-dimensional images of the pallet support and pallet load build, to determine, in real time, from the corresponding real time three-dimensional imaging data, a pallet support variance or article unit variance and generate in real time an articulated robot motion signal, the articulated robot motion signal being generated real time so as to be performed real time.

A method, a drone device, and an adaptive robot control system (ARCS) for adaptively controlling a programmable robot are provided. The ARCS receives environmental parameters of a work environment where the drone device operates and geometrical information of a target object to be operated on by the programmable robot. The ARCS dynamically receives a calibrated spatial location of the target object in the work environment based on the environmental parameters and a discernment of the target object from the drone device. The ARCS determines control information including parts geometry of the target object, a task trajectory of a task to be performed on the target object, and a collision-free robotic motion trajectory for the programmable robot, and dynamically transmits the control information to the programmable robot via a communication network to adaptively control the programmable robot while accounting for misalignments of the target object in the work environment.

Provided is a processing apparatus for determining a work to be picked by a robot from a plurality of works, using an image, captured by an image capture device, of an area on which the plurality of works are placed. The apparatus selects a pickable candidate work based on the image, and determines a picking target work positioned in a partial area assigned with a highest priority among the partial areas where candidate works are respectively positioned. The apparatus selects a next pickable candidate work whose position and orientation have changed within allowable ranges before and after picking, and determines a next picking target work positioned in the partial area assigned with the highest priority among the partial areas where the next pickable candidate works are respectively positioned.

A controller is provided for performing dynamic grasping of a target object using visual sensory inputs. The controller includes a robotic interface connected to a robotic arm including links connected by joints having actuators and encoders, and a gripper of the end-effector of the robotic arm configured to grasp the target object in response to robot control signals, and a vision sensor configured to continuously provide visual observations for tracking poses of the target object in a workspace and compute grasp poses, wherein the vision sensor is mounted on a distal end of the robotic arm adjacent to the gripper. The controller trains the Eye-on-Hand reinforcement learner policy, tracks the poses of the target object, and generates robot control signals to follow the target object while keeping it in the field of view of the vision sensor and grasp the target object in the workspace.

A robot includes, a holding unit configured to hold an object, an image pickup unit, and a predetermined first portion of the robot. The image pickup unit picks up images of the holding unit and the object using the first portion as a background.