A horizontal articulated robot may include a hand; an arm having at least two arm portions including a supporting-arm portion to which said hand is rotatably joined and a supported-arm portion to which the base end of said hand-side arm portion is rotatably joined; a main body portion; and a rotation mechanism structured to rotate said supported-arm portion. The rotation mechanism may include a motor which is arranged such that an axial direction of an output shaft of the motor coincides with a horizontal direction; a Harmonic Drive (registered trade mark) wave-motion gearing device structured to reduce the power of said motor; a first bevel gear coupled to said output shaft; and a second bevel gear coupled with a wave generator of said Harmonic Drive (registered trade mark) wave-motion gearing device and which meshes with said first bevel gear.

A parallel-type micro robot capable of precise control while minimizing size thereof and a surgical robot system having the same are disclosed. The parallel-type micro robot includes a base plate, a work plate, a main fixing shaft module, a horizontal movement module and at least one angle-controlling module. The base plate includes a base body portion and at least one base connecting portion connected to the base body portion. The work plate includes a work body portion corresponding to the base body portion and at least one work connecting portion connecting to the work body portion to correspond to the base connecting portion. The main fixing shaft module is disposed between the base body portion and the work body portion, and coupled to the work body portion such that the work body portion is rotatable. The horizontal movement module is disposed between the main fixing shaft module and the base body portion, and moves the main fixing shaft module along first and second directions intersecting each other. The angle-controlling module is coupled to the base connecting portion such that the base connecting portion is rotatable, is coupled to the work connecting portion such that the work connecting portion is rotatable, and allows translational motion between the base connecting portion and the work connecting portion. Thus, a size of a robot may be minimized while improving the structural stability and precise control.

A robotic surgical system includes a surgical instrument and a processor. The surgical instrument includes an elongate hollow shaft having a flexible section, a sensor apparatus configured to generate sensor data about the flexible section, and a force transmission mechanism coupled to the proximal end of the shaft. The processor is communicatively coupled to the sensor apparatus. The processor is configured to receive the sensor data about the flexible section from the sensor apparatus and to combine the sensor data received from the sensor apparatus with known information regarding mechanical and material property data for the surgical instrument to derive at least one of an internal actuation force applied by the force transmission mechanism or external force information for the surgical instrument.

A robotic surgical system includes a surgical instrument and a processor. The surgical instrument includes an elongate, hollow shaft having a proximal end, a distal end, and a flexible section. The surgical instrument further includes a sensor apparatus configured to generate sensor data about the flexible section and a force transmission mechanism coupled to the proximal end of the shaft. The processor is communicatively coupled to at least the sensor apparatus. The processor is configured to receive the sensor data about the flexible section from the sensor apparatus and to combine the sensor data received from the sensor apparatus with known information regarding stiffness of the surgical instrument to derive an internal actuation force applied by the force transmission mechanism.

A system comprises an arm including a bendable section and a force transmission mechanism. The system also comprises an actuation mechanism coupled to the force transmission mechanism to bend the bendable section. The system also comprises an electronic data processor configured to receive sensor data about the bendable section and determine external force information about at least one of a magnitude or a direction of an external force applied to the arm from the sensor data. the processor is also configured to determine a pose of the bendable section from the sensor data and generate control information for the actuation mechanism to maintain the pose of the bendable section in a stationary configuration as the external force is applied to or withdrawn from the arm.

A robotic surgical system comprising a surgical instrument. The surgical instrument includes an elongate, hollow shaft having a proximal end, a distal end, and a flexible section. The surgical instrument also includes a sensor apparatus comprising an electromagnetic sensor. The robotic surgical system also includes a force transmission mechanism coupled to the proximal end of the shaft and a processor communicatively coupled to at least the sensor apparatus. The processor is configured to receive sensor data from the sensor apparatus and to use the sensor data with video information, mechanical property data for the surgical instrument, and material property data for the surgical instrument to determine position and orientation information for the surgical instrument.

A wafer transfer system for use in a photolithography system including a wafer storage apparatus, a pre-alignment apparatus, a buffer stage and a wafer stage is disclosed, which includes: a dual-arm robot, configured to take a wafer to be exposed from the wafer storage apparatus and transfer it onto the pre-alignment apparatus and further configured to remove an exposed wafer from the buffer stage and place it back into the wafer storage apparatus; a wafer-loading linear robot, configured to transfer a pre-aligned wafer onto the wafer stage; and a wafer-unloading linear robot, configured to transfer the exposed wafer onto the buffer stage. The dual-arm robot, the wafer-loading linear robot and the wafer-unloading linear robot can operate in parallel so as to achieve time savings in the wafer transfers.

An industrial robot may include a robot main body; and an elevating mechanism to raise and lower the robot main body. The robot main body may include a hand, an arm to which the hand is joined, a main body portion to which the arm is joined, and an arm-elevating mechanism. The elevating mechanism may include a drive unit, guide rails, a guide block, and a joining member joining the robot main body and the guide block. The housing may include a flat cover between the guide block and the main body unit. Slit through-holes may be formed in the cover to enable the joining member to move in the up-down direction.

A robot assembly for transporting a substrate is presented. The robot assembly having a first arm and a second arm supported by a column, the first arm further having a first limb, the first limb having a first set of revolute joint/line pairs configured to provide translation and rotation of the distal most link of the first limb in the horizontal plane. The assembly further having a second arm further having a second limb, the second limb comprising a second set of revolute joint/link pairs configured to provide translation and rotation of a distalmost link of the second limb in the horizontal plane. The first limb and second limb further having proximal revolute joints having a common vertical axis of rotation and a proximal inner joint housed in a common housing. The assembly further having an actuator assembly coupled to the first set of revolute joint/link pairs and to the second set of revolute joint/link pairs to effect rotation and translation of the distalmost links of the first limb and the second limb, each of the first limb and the second limb defining, in conjunction with the actuator assembly, at least three degrees of freedom per limb, whereby the distalmost links of the first limb and the second limb are independently horizontally translatable for extension and retraction.

An information processing device includes an actuator emulator simulating a behavior of a first drive apparatus that is for driving a first control target, an actuator emulator simulating a behavior of a second drive apparatus that is for driving a second control target, a storage device for storing a PLC program including an instruction group with respect to the actuator emulator and a robot program including an instruction group with respect to the actuator emulator, a timer generating a virtual time, and a PLC emulator for repeatedly executing the instruction group included in the PLC program in each predetermined first control period in accordance with measurement using the virtual time, and a robot controller emulator for sequentially executing the instruction group included in the robot program in a predetermined execution order in accordance with the virtual time.