An integrated hand and method for manipulating items received in a shipping container. The integrated hand is carried by a tote handler and includes a base with a slotted plate, fingers, and flat plates. The fingers are extendable from and slidably movable along slots in the slotted plate. The flat plates are extendable from the base. The fingers and flat plates are selectively extendable about the base to define a grip space shaped to receivingly grip the items whereby the items are secured in position. The method includes receiving items in an original orientation from the shipping container by: selectively extending fingers and plates of an integrated hand to define an item space shaped to support and grippingly receiving the items; and inserting the items into a tote while maintaining the items in the original orientation by selectively rotating the integrated hand and inserting the integrated hand into the tote.

An end effector system is disclosed for a robotic system that includes a primary acquisition system that includes a primary end effector, and a secondary retention system that substantially surrounds at least a portion of the primary acquisition system, wherein at least a portion of the primary acquisition system may be drawn up within at least a portion of the secondary retention system such that the primary end effector system may be used to select an object from a plurality of objects, and the secondary retention system may be used to secure the object for rapid transport to an output destination.

This disclosure relates generally to a robotic gripper to hold a writing and object creation device for writing and object creation. The robotic gripper includes clamping unit, spring loaded slider unit and outer housing unit. The clamping unit include a finger collet with three or more flexible finger positions equispaced within 360 degrees with two areas of contact on each finger in front part for firm gripping. The spring loaded slider unit include a middle housing to transfer a force from the writing and object creation device to a force sensitive resistor (FSR). A micro actuator induces a required force to the writing and object creation device based on feedback from the force sensitive resistor. The middle housing includes a plunger shaft connected with a preload spring. The outer housing unit configured to hold a micro actuator, cotter pins, locator pins to the micro actuator, and a push pull key.

A controller is provided for interactive classification and recognition of an object in a scene using tactile feedback. The controller includes an interface configured to transmit and receive the control, sensor signals from a robot arm, gripper signals from a gripper attached to the robot arm, tactile signals from sensors attached to the gripper and at least one vision sensor, a memory module to store robot control programs, and a classifier and recognition model, and a processor to generate control signals based on the control program and a grasp pose on the object, configured to control the robot arm to grasp the object with the gripper. Further, the processor is configured to compute a tactile feature representation from the tactile sensor signals and to repeat gripping the object and computing a tactile feature representation with the set of grasp poses, after which the processor, processes the ensemble of tactile features to learn a model which is utilized to classify or recognize the object as known or unknown.

The invention is a device for grabbing an item. Specifically, the device comprises an arm that can be moved relative to a base and an array of pins configured to extend a length away from the base to contact the item to be grabbed. Once the pins contact the item to be grabbed, they cease extending away from the base. At least one axis of movement for the item is controlled by the device. More than one pin is configured to extend further than a minimum axis to contact the item.

The present application describes a cover assembly (102) for a prosthetic or robot hand, comprising a substantially flexible cover portion (104) locatable on at least one moveable digit assembly of a prosthetic hand; and at least one substantially rigid cover element (208, 210, 212, 214) attachable to the flexible cover portion. A prosthetic or robot hand comprising a cover assembly and a method of assembling a prosthetic or robot hand are also described.

The present invention is concerned with a test tube manipulation system, and in particular a system for use in handling test tubes and centrifuge tubes, which euables automation for improved reliability and repeatability, while also providing accurate and dextrous handling of the test tubes, the system comprising a test tube provided with at least a pair of protrusions spaced from one another about a sidewall of the test tube and a gripper comprising a pair of fingers each of which defines a recess shaped and dimensioned to receive one of the protrusions.

An apparatus for unscrambling articles includes a transport system for transporting randomly-arranged articles on a transport plane and a system for extracting articles arranged with a predefined orientation and/or position. Devices for picking and releasing the articles are configured to pick up the articles randomly arranged on the transport system and release them to an extraction system with a predefined orientation and/or position. A detection system is designed to detect position and arrangement of the articles in transit and to provide information for controlling gripping and release devices, while a unit for processing and controlling components and drives of the apparatus is designed to receive the position and/or arrangement information of the articles and to control the gripping and release devices. The pick and release devices include a robot for picking up articles only from the first section, and a robot for picking up articles only from the second section.

A tool (10) for assisting an optician in removing lenses (42) from or inserting lenses into eyeglass frames (44) includes an elongated block of substantially rigid material (12) having a forward working end (14) and a rearward free end (16) opposite the working end, the portion between the free end and the working end functioning as a handle to be grasped by a person's hand. A first recess (24) is formed in the bottom surface (22) of the block along with a first curved surface (26) and a first hook (28). The first curved surface includes a rearward facing pointed edge (27). Similarly, a second recess (36) is formed in the top surface (20) of the block along with a second curved surface (38) and a second hook (40). The hooks (28, 40) are adapted to rest against the edge (46) of the frame (44) as the pointed edge (27) or the second curved surface (38) presses the lens (42) out of or into the frame (44) as the free end (16) of the tool is rotated.

Techniques for fingertip design are disclosed that leverage how most grasp contacts can share a few classes of local geometries. In order to maximize the contact areas for achieving more robust grasps, contact primitives, which represent a set of contacts of similar local geometries, are identified. A uniform cost algorithm, which can be formulated as a decision making process in a tree structure, can be utilized to cluster a set of example grasp contacts into a finite set of one or more contact primitives. Fingertips can be designed by optimization to match the local geometry of each contact primitive, and then fingertips can be 3D printed using soft materials to compensate for optimization residuals. For novel objects, an approach to generate grasp contacts that match the fingertip geometries while together forming stable grasps can be utilized.