A coverage robot including a chassis, multiple drive wheel assemblies disposed on the chassis, and a cleaning assembly carried by the chassis. Each drive wheel assembly including a drive wheel assembly housing, a wheel rotatably coupled to the housing, and a wheel drive motor carried by the drive wheel assembly housing and operable to drive the wheel. The cleaning assembly including a cleaning assembly housing, a cleaning head rotatably coupled to the cleaning assembly housing, and a cleaning drive motor carried by cleaning assembly housing and operable to drive the cleaning head. The wheel assemblies and the cleaning assembly are each separately and independently removable from respective receptacles of the chassis as complete units.

A system includes an inspection robot comprising a plurality of sensor sleds; a plurality of ultra-sonic (UT) sensors; a couplant chamber mounted to each of the plurality of sleds, each couplant chamber comprising: a cone, the cone comprising a cone tip portion at an inspection surface end of the cone; a sensor mounting end opposite the cone tip portion; a couplant entry fluidly coupled to the cone at a position between the cone tip portion and the sensor mounting end; and wherein each of the UT sensors is mounted to the sensor mounting end of one of the couplant chambers.

A robotic work tool (100) comprising a chassis (110) and a body (120). The robotic work tool (100) further comprises at least one input unit (170, 180) for receiving input data relating to an operation of the robotic work tool (100), and at least one collision sensor arrangement (140) for detecting a direction of a movement of the chassis (110) with respect to the body (120). The movement is indicative of a collision. The robotic work tool (100) further comprises at least one controller (130) for controlling operation of the robotic work tool (100). The at least one controller (130) is configured to receive, from the at least one input unit (170, 180), said input data relating to the operation of the robotic work tool (100). The at least one controller (130) is further configured to adapt a collision threshold based on said input data relating to the operation of the robotic work tool (100). The collision threshold is related to said movement of the chassis (110) with respect to the body (120) detected by the at least one collision sensor arrangement (140).

A control unit drives a drive source to move the moving body. A detection unit detects external force applied to the moving body. A movement information deriving unit derives, based on the detected external force, a movement direction and movement speed of the moving body. The control unit drives the drive source based on the movement direction and movement speed derived by the movement information deriving unit.

The invention discloses a robot network structure suitable for an unstructured environment and a sensing system. The robot network structure is a basic unit or superposition of multiple basic units. An upper structure of the basic unit comprises at least two first nodes, and a lower structure comprises at least two second nodes which are not coplanar with the at least two first nodes. All the first nodes and all the second nodes form a three-dimensional network structure through connecting rods. According to the invention, when a lateral acting force from the external environment is received, the connecting rod of the three-dimensional network structure undergoes concave deformation in a space to adapt to a geometric structure of the external environment, thereby enabling a robot to realize physical interaction in the unstructured environment; and on top of this, a hollow structure of the connecting rod may be directly used as an optical path or a single or multiple optical fiber loops may be embedded therein, and the physical deformation of the connecting rod is detected by measuring the change of light flux, so that the robot may realize the physical perception of the unstructured environment during interaction.

An unmanned following vehicle includes a controller that controls the unmanned following vehicle to move in parallel with a moving object by following the moving object on a left side or a right side of the moving object. For example, the controller adjusts a moving speed of the unmanned following vehicle according to a Y-axis coordinate difference value, which is a difference value between a position of the moving object and a position of the unmanned following vehicle in a forward direction. The controller also adjusts a steering direction and a steering angle of the unmanned following vehicle according to an X-axis coordinate difference value, which is a difference value between the position of the moving object and the position of the unmanned following vehicle in a lateral direction.

It is proposed a positioning assistance system for a vibrator truck, that is configured to determine a vibration point distance between the vibrator truck and the vibration point location; determine a stopping distance for stopping the vibrator truck at a vibration point location, according to a determined current speed of the vibrator truck and according to a speed profile; determine a time for stopping the vibrator truck at the vibration point location according to the current speed of the vibrator truck, when the stopping distance corresponds to said vibration point distance; and trigger the lifting down of the baseplate of the vibratory system, when at least the following condition is met: said stopping time is inferior or equal to a time for lifting down the vibratory system to the ground. Corresponding vibrator truck and method are also proposed.

An autonomous vehicle includes a vehicle body having a receiving device configured to receive an object to be transported, a chassis having at least one driven wheel, and at least one sensor device having a detection region surrounding the autonomous vehicle for recognizing obstacles which enter the detection region in the immediate surroundings of the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle includes a joint arrangement configured to adjust the sensor device relative to the vehicle body such that the sensor device can be operated in a first arrangement which monitors the basic peripheral contour of the vehicle body, and in at least one second arrangement which monitors a total peripheral contour including the basic peripheral contour and an expansion contour of the autonomous vehicle that is formed when an object to be transported is received.

Provided is a self-position estimation apparatus capable of appropriately estimating a self-position of a mobile object regardless of an environment around the mobile object. The self-position estimation apparatus is for estimating a self-position of a mobile object, and includes: N types of sensors (where N is a natural number equal to or greater than two) that detect information with different contents from each other regarding a moving status of the mobile object; an environment determiner that determines an environment around the mobile object; a selector that selects information detected by one or more but less than the N types of sensors based on a determination result of the environment determiner; and an estimator that estimates the self-position of the mobile object based on the information selected by the selector.

An unmanned following vehicle includes a controller configured to control the unmanned following vehicle to move in parallel with a moving object by following the moving object on a left side or a right side of the moving object, wherein the controller is configured to control the unmanned following vehicle to move in parallel with the moving object by: adjusting a moving speed of the unmanned following vehicle according to a Y-axis coordinate difference value, which is a difference value between a position of the moving object and a position of the unmanned following vehicle in a forward direction, and adjusting a steering direction and a steering angle of the unmanned following vehicle according to an X-axis coordinate difference value, which is a difference value between the position of the moving object and the position of the unmanned following vehicle in a lateral direction.