Some embodiments are directed to a parallel robotic structure with six degrees of freedom, comprising movable bases that can be rotated or translated. A platform coupled with the movable bases by moving elements, wherein the platform is made up of two rigid elements connected to one another by a single articulation. This parallel robotic structure makes it possible to perform cutting, gripping and manipulating operations simultaneously with six degrees of without requiring an additional tool. The gripping functionality is provided due to the articulated platform, which is an integral part of the mechanical architecture and can be entirely controlled by the offset actuators located in the stationary base.

A sensor arrangement for measuring at least one component of a force or a torque includes a sensor assembly having a first contact structure and a second contact structure, between which the at least one component of the force or torque is to be measured, and a plurality of sensor elements. The plurality of sensor elements are each connected by way of a first joint to the first contact structure and by way of a second joint to the second contact structure and configured to measure the component of force or torque between the first contact structure and the second contact structure. The first contact structure, the second contact structure and the plurality of sensor elements form a rolled-up structure that extends like a jacket along a surface of the sensor arrangement.

Disclosed is a two-turn-one-movement parallel mechanism with a large turning angle, comprising a machine frame, a movable platform, a first branch and two second branches, characterized in that the first branch comprises a machine frame turning pair, a first moving pair slider, a first moving pair guide rod and a first universal joint; each one of the second branches comprises a second moving pair guide rail, a second moving pair slider, a second universal joint, a connecting rod and a movable platform turning pair; in the two second branches, the axis of the first turning pair of each one of the second universal joints is superimposed with and parallel to the axis of the machine frame turning pair in the first branch, and the axis of each one of the movable platform turning pairs is parallel to the second turning axis of the first universal joint in the first branch.

A three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism with curved sliding pairs includes a fixed platform, a moving platform, and three curved branches disposed between the fixed platform and the moving platform. Each of the curved branches includes a first curved link and a second curved link that share a common arc center. One end of the first curved link is connected to fixed platform by a rotational pair. One end of the second curved link is disposed in a cavity at another end of the first curved link. The second curved link is operative to perform a reciprocating motion along a tangent of an arc of the first curved link. Another end of the second curved link is connected to the moving platform by a ball joint. The axes of the three rotational pairs of the three curved branches coincide with each other and are perpendicular to the fixed platform. In the three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism with curved sliding pairs, the moving platform of the parallel mechanism is rotatable around the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis of a three-dimensional coordinate system taking the arc center of the three curved branches as the origin, where the rotation of the moving platform about the Z axis is decoupled from the rotation in the other two orientations.

Method and apparatus for automated operations, such as pruning, harvesting, spraying and/or maintenance, on plants, and particularly plants with foliage having features on many length scales or a wide spectrum of length scales, such as female flower buds of the marijuana plant. The invention utilizes a convolutional neural network for image segmentation classification and/or the determination of features. The foliage is imaged stereoscopically to produce a three-dimensional surface image, a first neural network determines regions to be operated on, and a second neural network determines how an operation tool operates on the foliage. For pruning of resinous foliage the cutting tool is heated or cooled to avoid having the resins make the cutting tool inoperable.

A method for problem diagnosis in a robot system having one or more robots includes the steps of: a) receiving (S1) a first problem message from a robot of the robot system, the first problem message including one or more data elements descriptive of a problem experienced by the robot; b) receiving (S1) a subsequent problem message from a robot of the robot system; c) if a time elapsed between receipt of the subsequent problem message and receipt of an immediately preceding problem message is shorter than a predetermined threshold (S2), adding the subsequent problem message to a message set which comprises the immediately preceding problem message (S3); and d) if the time elapsed is longer than the predetermined threshold (S2), terminating (S4) the message set of the immediately preceding problem message without adding the subsequent problem message, and establishing (S5, S6) a new message set.

A mechanism for actuation and control of a device, such as an interventional device, in two dimensions via a cable-driven arrangement. The mechanism can include multiple spring-loaded cam followers and a conical control surface acting as the cam. The translation of the conical cam results in the perpendicular linear motion of the cam followers. With the cables coupled to the cam followers from one end, and to the device of interest at the other end, the motion of the followers results in cable displacements that lead to the manipulation of the interventional device. Adjustment of the cable lengths are made possible with a proportion determined by the cam. This allows maintaining a set tension and while avoiding sagging. The resulting system can be an entirely passive mechanism in some embodiments that allows for accurate device position control, position estimation, and haptic feedback.

This machine tool system uses a plurality of mobile robots to convey workpieces to a plurality of machine tools, the machine tool system being provided with: machine tool control unit that issues work requests to the machine tools; a mobile robot control unit that determines workable times for the mobile robots on the basis of the work requests; and a determining unit that compares the workable times which are for the mobile robots and respectively planned by the mobile robots, and causes the mobile robot with the fastest workable time to execute the requested work.

Using a suction gripper cluster device is disclosed, including: causing airflows to be generated by a plurality of airflow generators of a respective plurality of suction gripper mechanisms included in a suction gripper cluster device comprising a plurality of suction gripper mechanisms, wherein the plurality of airflow generators is configured to cause the airflows to enter respective intake ports of the plurality of suction gripper mechanisms and exit respective outlet ports of the respective plurality of suction gripper mechanisms in response to receiving air at a respective air input port of the respective plurality of suction gripper mechanisms; causing a target object to be captured by the suction gripper cluster device using the airflows; activating a positioning actuator mechanism to position the suction gripper cluster device; and causing the target object to be ejected from the suction gripper cluster device.

A single-layer three-section rail-type planar robot containing a double parallelogram, is composed of a stationary platform, a motion platform and three branched chains with the same structure connecting the stationary platform and the motion platform, the stationary platform is provided with three planar curved rails, each planar curved rail is connected to the motion platform through a branched chain, and each branched chain includes a slider, two link bars I arranged in parallel, two link bars II arranged in parallel, and link bar III, select one revolute joint I in each branched chain to form three revolute joints I as the main driving joint or three sliders as the driving parts.