The present disclosure relates to a robot, and provides a 3 degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism with 3 branched-chains, which includes a fixed platform, a movable platform, and three arc-shaped connecting rods. The rotation axes of three arc-shaped connecting rods are intersected with each other and each rotation axes is parallel to the fixed platform. Each arc-shaped connecting rod has a sliding slot curved extending along a longitudinal direction. The three connecting shafts one-to-one corresponds to the three arc-shaped connecting rods and are disposed on the movable platform. A first end of each connecting shaft is fixedly connected with the movable platform. A second end is hinged joint with a connecting head. The connecting head is slid and disposed in the corresponding sliding slot.

A robot of one aspect includes a first base configuring a trunk portion, a second base configuring a head region, a connecting mechanism that connects the first base and the second base, and a drive unit that drives the connecting mechanism. The drive unit includes motors disposed on the first base. The connecting mechanism includes linking mechanisms that are disposed in parallel to each other and are driven by the motors respectively. Each linking mechanism includes a drive link fixed to a rotary shaft of the motor and a driven link that is connected to the drive link via a first joint and connected to the second base via a second joint. The first joint is a single axis hinge joint, and the second joint is a universal joint.

Disclosed is a three-branched six-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism with curved sliding pairs, which includes a base, a moving platform, and three identical kinetic branches. The kinetic branches are radially and evenly distributed and arranged between the base and the moving platform. Each kinetic branch includes a first curved link assembly, a first motor, and a support link. One end of the support link is hinged to the moving platform. One end of the first curved link assembly is hinged to the support link. The first motor is disposed on the base and is configured for driving the first curved link assembly to rotate, where an arc length of the first curved link assembly is changed as the first curved link assembly is driven to rotate.

A rotational joint of intra-extra rotation (100) for assistance of the movement of intra-extra rotation of a shoulder of a user, said rotational joint (100) comprising a first circular guide (110) arranged to rotate about a rotation axis r, a second circular guide (120) arranged to rotate about a rotation axis r parallel to the rotation axis r, an support element (130) arranged to support the first and the second circular guide (110, 120). The first and the second circular guide (110, 120) are pivotally connected by a conical wheel (140) having rotation axis s perpendicular to rotation axes r and said conical wheel (140) being pivotally constrained to the support element (130). When the conical wheel (140) makes a rotation about its rotation axis s, the first circular guide (110) makes a rotation about its rotation axis r and, at the same time, the second circular guide (120) makes a rotation = about its rotation axis r.

A robot mechanism is provided with a parallel link including a first output base, a first parallel link mechanism disposed on a first side of the first output base, and a second parallel link mechanism and an end effector disposed on a second side of the first output base. The first parallel link mechanism includes a first driver that generates a linear motion output and a second driver that generates a linear motion output. A tilting link mechanism including a mass body that generates a second moment load in a direction to reduce a first moment load exerted on the first parallel link mechanism by the weight of the second parallel link mechanism and the end effector is connected to the first driver and the second driver.

A rotational joint of intra-extra rotation for assistance of the movement of intra-extra rotation of a shoulder of a user. The rotational joint features a first circular guide arranged to rotate about a first rotation axis and a second circular guide arranged to rotate about a second rotation axis that is parallel to the first rotation axis. A support element is arranged to support the first and the second circular guides. The first and the second circular guide are pivotally connected by a conical wheel having a third rotation axis perpendicular to the first rotation axes and said conical wheel being pivotally constrained to the support element.

A 2 DOFs decoupling parallel mechanism provided by the present disclosure comprises a fixed platform, a rotation assembly, a moving platform, an arc kinematic chain, and an arc rod. In the 2 DOFs decoupling parallel mechanism, the rotation assembly can drive the moving platform to rotate by 360 degrees around a direction being perpendicular to the fixed platform, the arc rod reciprocates along the tangential direction of the arc kinematic chain to enable the moving platform to rotate around an axis of a plane where the arc kinematic chain is located. In this way, the rotations of the moving platform in two directions are respectively driven by driving units in two directions and being independent from each other, such that the two rotation actions of the mechanism have decoupling capability.

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.

A 3 DOFs decoupling spherical parallel mechanism provided by the present disclosure comprises: a fixed platform, a rotation assembly, a moving platform, a first arc kinematic chain, a second arc kinematic chain, a first arc rod, and a second arc rod. In the 3 DOFs decoupling spherical parallel mechanism, the rotation assembly can drive the moving platform to rotate by 360 degrees around a direction being perpendicular to the fixed platform, and the first arc rod and the second arc rod reciprocate along tangential directions of the first arc kinematic chain and of the second arc kinematic chain respectively to enable the moving platform to rotate around an axis of a plane where the first arc kinematic chain or the second arc kinematic chain is located. In this way, the rotations of the moving platform in three directions are respectively driven by driving units in three directions and being independent from each other, such that the three rotation actions of the mechanism have decoupling capability.

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.