The present invention relates to a method for parallelized simulation of the movement of a machine component in or near a work object, wherein: a planned trajectory of the machine component is divided into several trajectory portions; a simulation of at least a first trajectory portion and a second trajectory portion is performed at least partly in parallel yielding simulation results, wherein the simulation comprises determining incidents, preferably collisions, along the trajectory portions; at least the simulation results of the first trajectory portion and the second trajectory portion are merged yielding a merged simulation result; and the merged simulation result is outputted.

A control system and method for generalized admittance control (AC) is provided. The control system includes circuitry communicatively coupled to a robotic manipulator. The circuitry receives, from a sensor system of the robotic manipulator, contact force measurements associated with a physical interaction of the robotic manipulator with an object. The circuitry determines a surface portion of the robotic manipulator on which the physical interaction with the object occurs and samples a set of interaction points from the surface portion. The circuitry computes a generalized velocity for AC of the robotic manipulator by minimizing a cost function. The cost function includes a relationship between the contact force measurements and an approximation term which models application of an actual contact force of the physical interaction on the sampled set of interaction points. The circuitry generates a set of joint control instructions based on generalized velocity to control motion of the robotic manipulator.

A method of operating a robotic control system comprising a master apparatus in communication with a plurality of input devices having respective handles capable of translational and rotational movement and a slave system having a tool positioning device corresponding to each respective handle and holding a respective tool having an end effector whose position and orientation is determined in response to a position and orientation of a corresponding handle. The method involves producing desired new end effector positions and orientations of respective end effectors in response to current positions and orientations of corresponding handles, using the desired new end effector positions and orientations to determine distances from each point of a first plurality of points along a first tool positioning device to each point of a plurality of points along at least one other tool positioning device, and determining and notifying that any of the distances meets a proximity criterion.

Robots, including robot arms, can interface with other modules to affect the world surrounding the robot. However, designing modules from scratch when human analogues exist is not efficient. In an embodiment, a mechanical tool, converted from human use, to be used by robots includes a monolithic adaptor having two interface components. The two interface components include a first interface component cabal be of mating with an actuated mechanism on the robot side, the second interface capable of clamping to an existing utensil. In such a way, utensils that are intended for humans can be adapted for robots and robotic arms.

An information processing device is configured to virtually execute motion of a device including a plurality of apparatuses. The information processing device includes a display portion and a control portion. The control portion is configured to extract an apparatus to be virtually moved, from the apparatuses on a basis of movement ranges of the apparatuses and display the apparatus on the display portion, as a check object.

A method of operating a robotic control system comprising a master apparatus in communication with a plurality of input devices having respective handles capable of translational and rotational movement and a slave system having a tool positioning device corresponding to each respective handle and holding a respective tool having an end effector whose position and orientation is determined in response to a position and orientation of a corresponding handle. The method involves producing desired new end effector positions and orientations of respective end effectors in response to current positions and orientations of corresponding handles, using the desired new end effector positions and orientations to determine distances from each point of a first plurality of points along a first tool positioning device to each point of a plurality of points along at least one other tool positioning device, and determining and notifying that any of the distances meets a proximity criterion.

In an embodiment, a method includes identifying a force and torque for a robot to accomplish a task and identifying context of a portion of a movement plan indicating motion of the robot to perform the task. Based on the identified force, torque, and context, a context specific torque is determined for at least one aspect of the robot while the robot executes the portion of the movement plan. In turn, a control signal is generated for the at least one aspect of the robot to operate in accordance with the determined context specific torque.

Current technologies allow a robot to acquire a tool only if the tool is in a set known location, such as in a rack. In an embodiment, a method and corresponding system, can determine the previously unknown pose of a tool freely placed in an environment. The method can then calculate a trajectory that allows for a robot to move from its current position to the tool and attach with the tool. In such a way, tools can be located and used by a robot when placed at any location in an environment.

A problem with current food service robots is making the robots safe to work around food. A solution provided by the present disclosure is a food-safe tool switcher and corresponding tool. The tool switcher can mate with a variety of tools, which can be molded or 3D printed out of food-safe materials into a single-part, instead of constructed modularly. This provides for easier cleaning.

A control system and method for generalized admittance control (AC) is provided. The control system includes circuitry communicatively coupled to a robotic manipulator. The circuitry receives, from a sensor system of the robotic manipulator, contact force measurements associated with a physical interaction of the robotic manipulator with an object. The circuitry determines a surface portion of the robotic manipulator on which the physical interaction with the object occurs and samples a set of interaction points from the surface portion. The circuitry computes a generalized velocity for AC of the robotic manipulator by minimizing a cost function. The cost function includes a relationship between the contact force measurements and an approximation term which models application of an actual contact force of the physical interaction on the sampled set of interaction points. The circuitry generates a set of joint control instructions based on generalized velocity to control motion of the robotic manipulator.