A transport system transports a transport object in a state sandwiching the transport object between a plurality of transport robots, wherein the transport robot comprises: a main body; wheels; a rotation mechanism that makes a contact part rotatable relative to the main body; a drive part(s) mounted on the main body and driving the wheels; a load sensor detecting a load when the contact part contacts the transport object; and an angle sensor that detects a rotation angle of the contact part relative to the main body, wherein using hardware resources, processings are executed to control the drive part so that load and rotation angle approach a first target value and a second target value based on information of a load and a rotation angle detected by the load sensor and the angle sensor.

A paving system includes a paving machine, a plurality of locational or positional sensor units coupled to or in communication with the paving machine, and a controller in communication with the plurality of sensor units. The controller is configured to select locational or positional information from one or more active sensor units of the plurality of sensor units and automatically navigate the paving machine.

An autonomous mobile apparatus such that damage to a camera thereof can be avoided. The autonomous mobile apparatus includes: a main body case; a running gear for moving the main body case when placed on the floor; a driving force source for driving the running gear; a robot controller for controlling the driving force source so that the main body case autonomously moves on the floor; a bumper disposed on the front side of the main body case; and a camera unit disposed on the rear side of a side surface of the main body case and images the area behind the main body case.

In a first mode, a control unit controls operation of driving wheels so that a main casing is made to travel straight and, upon detection of an object by an object sensor, the main casing is changed in traveling direction and made to travel straight. In a second mode, the control unit controls the operation of the driving wheels so that the main casing travels in a curved shape along an object detected by the object sensor. When a charging device is not found by a signal reception part during traveling within a region by the first mode, the control unit is changed over to the second mode. The control unit is changed over to the first mode when it is decided a specified number of times or more that the main casing has moved to a different region by the second mode.

A vacuum cleaner capable of smoothly traveling along an obstacle. A control unit has modes of travel control and directional change control. In the travel control, while a distance between a main casing and a sideward obstacle detected by a distance measuring sensor is kept within a specified distance range, a motor is driven so as to make the main casing travel along the obstacle. In the directional change control, when an obstacle forward of the main casing is detected by a contact sensor during the travel control, the motor is driven so as to make the main casing change in advancing direction along the detected forward obstacle. The directional change control includes at least swing control for driving the motor so as to make the main casing swing to a specified swing angle while disregarding a distance detected by the distance measuring sensor.

A system includes an inspection robot for performing an inspection on an inspection surface with an inspection robot, the apparatus comprising a position definition circuit structured to determine an inspection robot position on the inspection surface; a data positioning circuit structured to interpret inspection data, and to correlate the inspection data to the inspection robot position on the inspection surface; and wherein the data positioning circuit is further structured to determine position informed inspection data in response to the correlating of the inspection data with the inspection robot position, wherein the position informed inspection data comprises absolute position data.

Locating apparatus for machine tool including supporting portion for placing at fixed point on object's machining surface, detector including cable to connect apparatus with machine, and locating portion to release or receive cable to measure distance between machine and apparatus and including frame, first device, second device and third device. First device attached to the frame and for receiving or releasing cable in opposition to or pushed by elastic element. Second device attached to frame and includes transmission member to allow the cable passage. Third device attached to frame and allows cable release or reception by apparatus towards machine. First device includes discoidal element rotating around axis of rotation respective to frame to wind or release cable on winding surface. Second device includes guiding slider for conveying cable along conveying direction and moving along translation direction parallel to axis of rotation in proportion to discoidal element rotation.

A system and method for offloading scalable robotic tasks in a mobile robotics framework. The system comprises a cluster of mobile robots and they are connected with a back-end cluster infrastructure. It receives scalable robotic tasks at a mobile robot of the cluster. The scalable robotics tasks include building a map of an unknown environment by using the mobile robot, navigating the environment using the map and localizing the mobile robot on the map. Therefore, the system estimate the map of an unknown environment and at the same time it localizes the mobile robot on the map. Further, the system analyzes the scalable robotics tasks based on computation, communication load and energy usage of each scalable robotic task. And finally the system priorities the scalable robotic tasks to minimize the execution time of the tasks and partitioning the SLAM with computation offloading in edge network and mobile cloud server setup.

A navigation method, performed by a smart moving device, includes determining a navigation strategy according to a preset navigation calculation function; acquiring collision indication information related to a collision status when the smart moving device moves according to the navigation strategy; and adjusting the preset navigation calculation function according to the collision indication information; and updating the navigation strategy according to the adjusted navigation calculation function.

In an automatic vehicle position control system, such as a satellite-based agricultural implement steering system, the satellite-based steering information is adjusted with information obtained from one or more path sensors to facilitate the automatic nudging of the vehicle to take account of inaccurate tracking of the agricultural implement relative to its tractor, terrain variations, and inaccuracies in the satellite-based steering system.