Embodiments of the present invention provide an automatic monitoring method and apparatus that automatically detects occurrence of an accident or a situation that may lead to an accident in a CNC machine and environment; and signals to take an appropriate action for rectifying the accidental situation. The method and apparatus may include a plurality of sensors that are mounted on various parts of the CNC machine, wherever required. The method, in execution, detects collisions and other failures/injuries in the CNC machine that lead to severe accidents and damage to the operation.

A numerical controller includes a coordinate management unit that updates machine origin offset data indicating a positional relationship between a machine origin of a machine tool and a machine origin of a robot depending on movement of the machine origin of the machine tool or the machine origin of the robot; and an interference check processing unit that detects interference between the machine tool and the robot on the basis of a position of a first interference definition area and a position of a second interference definition area, and the updated machine origin offset data.

An industrial safety system implements predictive method of detecting possible hazardous interactions between humans and machines or other hazardous entities. The system receives sensor data indicative of the locations of people and hazardous entities within the plant environment. Sensor data corresponding to each detected entity is aggregated, ranked, and weighed based on determined reliabilities of the respective data sources. The resulting ranked and weighed location information is tracked and analyzed by the system to determine current and predicted trajectories of the detected objects, and the system analyzes these trajectories to determine a probability of a future hazardous interaction between a human and a hazardous entity. In response to determining that a likelihood of a future hazardous interaction between a person and a machine exists, the system delivers a control output that places the machine in a safe state or a notification output warning of the hazard.

An autosampler includes a drive unit, an obstacle sensor, and a control unit. The drive unit includes: a head; an arm that extends in a Y-axis direction, which is one direction in a horizontal plane, and slides in a Y-axis direction while holding the head on the distal end side; and an arm movement mechanism that moves the arm in an X-axis direction that is orthogonal to the Y-axis direction in the horizontal plane. The obstacle sensor is provided to the drive unit and detects an obstacle on the movement path of the head and the arm. The control unit controls driving of the head by the drive unit and includes a shortest route movement route and an obstacle avoidance unit.

Systems and methods for detection of people are disclosed. In some exemplary implementations, a robot can have a plurality of sensor units. Each sensor unit can be configured to generate sensor data indicative of a portion of a moving body at a plurality of times. Based on at least the sensor data, the robot can determine that the moving body is a person by at least detecting the motion of the moving body and determining that the moving body has characteristics of a person. The robot can then perform an action based at least in part on the determination that the moving body is a person.

A control device comprising: a processor controls a robot having a robot arm and accept a command from an input unit which enables an input operation; and a storage that stores information about a driving of the robot, wherein the processor carries out first drive control to move a predetermined part of the robot arm or of an end effector connected to the robot arm from a first position toward a second position if the processor accepts a first command to move the predetermined part, and second drive control to move the predetermined part in such a way as to return along at least a part of a route which the predetermined part traces when moving from the first position toward the second position, based on the information stored in the storage, if the processor accepts a second command to retract the predetermined part after the first command.

A method for motion planning for at least one robot includes providing a start configuration comprising at least one start position and a destination configuration comprising at least one destination position for the robot, providing a motion of at least one obstacle in the workspace of the robot, the obstacle motion defining a position of the obstacle that varies over time, and determining a motion of the robot from its start configuration to its destination configuration. The robot motion definies a position of the robot over a time period from a start time to a destination time. The robot motion is determined such that at each point in time between the start and destination times a distance between the robot and the obstacle does not fall below a predetermined threshold.

A method for collision monitoring of a robot includes ascertaining an actual value of an axis load of at least one axis of the robot and identifying a collision of the robot if a deviation between this actual value and a reference value of the axis load exceeds a threshold value. The threshold value is ascertained as a function of at least one preceding deviation between the actual value and the reference value and/or at least one preceding reference value and/or the reference value, is ascertained as a function of a preceding actual value.

A robot simulator includes a storage device that stores model information related to the robot and an obstacle in the vicinity of the robot, and an acquisition device that obtains first input information defining a start position and an end position of operation of the robot. A processing device generates a path for moving the distal end portion of the robot from the start position to the end position while avoiding collisions between the robot and the obstacle based on the first input information and the model information. The processing device also generates image data including an illustration of the obstacle and an index indicating a via-point of the path.

This work region estimation device, which estimates a region in which a worker performs work, is provided with an orientation acquisition unit that acquires worker orientation information, and a work region calculation unit that, on the basis of the orientation information and a worker body model, calculates a region in which a worker operation is forecast.