An automated cooking system for adding time and labor efficiencies in food production environments such as restaurants. The automated cooking system includes at least a fryer, a dispensing freezer, a hot holding station, a plurality of baskets, and a gantry system. The gantry system includes a gantry control for a gantry, configured to engage and move each of the baskets. The basket and gantry include interface elements for enabling precise movements and rapid opening and closing of baskets at the system. Aspects of an automated cooking system and a corresponding method for discharging cooked food product help to avoid the problems associated with manually operating a cooking system. Specifically, the system described herein provides for apparatuses and methods to cook and dispense food product in a more efficient manner with regard to both time and labor considerations within food production environments.

The present invention provides a handheld robot for orthopedic surgery and a control method thereof. The handheld robot of the present invention includes a main body, a grip, a kinematic mechanism, a tool connector, a tool, a force sensor and a positioning unit. The handheld robot of the present invention combines the position/orientation information of the tool acquired by the positioning unit with the force/torque information acquired by the force sensor, and utilizes the combined information to adjust the position of the tool so as to keep the tool within the range/path of a predetermined operation plan. In this way, the precision of the orthopedic surgery can be enhanced, and the error occurred during the surgery can be minimized.

A method, device, and computer program product for compensating robot movement deviations caused by a gear box as well as to a robot arrangement including such a device. The device has a drift estimating block configured to obtain motor data ({dot over (q)}.sub.r) and motor torque data () related to the motor, determine a measure of the temperature of the gear box based on the motor data ({dot over (q)}.sub.r) and motor torque data () and estimate the drift (q) based on a drift value of the robot section, the drift value in turn being obtained based on the gearbox temperature measure and a gravitational torque (.sub.grav) of the motor, and a drift adjusting block (44) configured to adjust a control value (q.sub.r) used to control the positioning of the robot based on the estimated drift (q).

An automated cooking system for adding time and labor efficiencies in food production environments such as restaurants. The automated cooking system includes at least a fryer, a dispensing freezer, a hot holding station, a plurality of baskets, and a gantry system. The gantry system includes a gantry control for a gantry, configured to engage and move each of the baskets. The basket and gantry include interface elements for enabling precise movements and rapid opening and closing of baskets at the system. Aspects of an automated cooking system and a corresponding method for discharging cooked food product help to avoid the problems associated with manually operating a cooking system. Specifically, the system described herein provides for apparatuses and methods to cook and dispense food product in a more efficient manner with regard to both time and labor considerations within food production environments.

The present invention provides a horizontally movable 7-axis multi-joint robot, including: a robot arm to which a plurality of arm units is coupled through multi-joints; a transport member, which is movable along a guide rail installed in a horizontal direction wherein the robot arm is coupled thereto; a base seated on the transport member, to which the robot arm is coupled; and a weight balancing arm prepared such that any one of the above arm units is eccentrical on the base, which has a weight pendulum prepared in opposite to the robot arm, thereby preventing the weight from being concentrated toward the robot arm.

The present invention provides a handheld robot for orthopedic surgery and a control method thereof. The handheld robot of the present invention includes a main body, a grip, a kinematic mechanism, a tool connector, a tool, a force sensor and a positioning unit. The handheld robot of the present invention combines the position/orientation information of the tool acquired by the positioning unit with the force/torque information acquired by the force sensor, and utilizes the combined information to adjust the position of the tool so as to keep the tool within the range/path of a predetermined operation plan. In this way, the precision of the orthopedic surgery can be enhanced, and the error occurred during the surgery can be minimized.

Example systems and methods are disclosed for determining tool offset data for a tool attached to a robot at an attachment point. The method may include controlling the robot to contact a reference object with the tool. The reference object may be a rigid object with a known location. A force feedback sensor of the robot may indicate when the tool has contacted the reference object. Once contact is made, data indicating robot position during tool contact may be received. Additionally, the robot may temporarily stop movement of the tool to prevent damage to the tool or the reference object. Next, tool offset data may be determined based on the position of the reference object relative to the robot and the received robot position data. The tool offset data may describe the distance between at least one point on the tool and the attachment point.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods for determining an object location of an object. In the method, a group of measurement locations for a group of feature marks in the object are collected from a group of sensors, respectively. A group of estimation locations are obtained for the group of feature marks based on the object location and a group of offsets between the group of estimation locations and the object location, respectively. An error function is generated based on the group of measurement locations and the group of estimation locations. The object location is determined based on the error function. With these embodiments, performance and accuracy for determining the object location may be greatly increased.

There is provided a pick-and-place system for transferring and installing a contoured composite structure onto a mandrel, in a composite manufacturing system. The pick-and-place system includes a tray station having a tray assembly to hold the contoured composite structure, prior to transfer and installation onto the mandrel. The pick-and-place system further includes an installation station having the mandrel and a pick-and-place assembly. The mandrel is designed to receive the contoured composite structure, and designed to move along a moving manufacturing line, via a conveyor assembly. The pick-and-place assembly includes a gantry assembly, a main beam suspended from the gantry assembly, the main beam having a plurality of end effector assemblies and a plurality of indexing assemblies, a vacuum system coupled to the main beam, a load balancer assembly coupling the main beam to the gantry assembly, and a control system coupled to the pick-and-place assembly, to operably control the pick-and-place-assembly.

A robotic manipulator comprises a plurality of spring compensated joints, each including a four-bar linkage mechanism, a gravity compensating spring, a spring adjustment mechanism, a spring adjustment actuator and an inertial actuator. The gravity compensating spring is coupled between two links of the four-bar linkage mechanism at two different spring attachment points to provide a lifting force opposing a gravitational load force. The spring adjustment mechanism is coupled to alter a position of one of the spring attachment points. The spring adjustment actuator is coupled to move the spring adjustment mechanism to alter the position of the spring attachment point and adjust the amount of lifting force provided by the spring. The inertial actuator is coupled between links of the four-bar linkage mechanism to effectuate rotational movement of the four-bar linkage mechanism and apply an adjustable amount of force to accelerate and manipulate a payload handled by the robotic manipulator.