A valve for use within a vacuum cup of a vacuum gripping system is described. In one example, a vacuum cup includes a bellows and a valve assembly seated within an inner chamber of the bellows. The valve assembly includes a body disk seated within the inner chamber, a control disk seated toward a suction cup end of the bellows, a spring positioned between the body disk and the control disk, and a control stem extending through the central valve aperture of the body disk, through the spring, and secured to the control disk. When the control stem is seated within the central valve aperture, the valve assembly restricts fluid suction to within the inner chamber. When the valve control stem is unseated from the central valve aperture, the valve assembly conveys fluid suction to the suction cup end of the bellows.

A soft gripper apparatus is provided. In another aspect, a soft gripper includes tribo-skin pressure sensors, an internal bending sensor, at least one flexible gripping finger and an actuator. A further aspect of a soft gripper apparatus employs longitudinally elongated, laterally spaced apart and self-powering, electrically conductive strips that sense and send a bending signal to a programmable controller indicative of a bending angle of a gripping finger within which the strips are encapsulated. Another aspect of a gripping apparatus includes at least one workpiece pressure sensor and/or at least one bending sensor, which are connected to a programmable controller and electrical circuit to automatically determine a characteristic of the workpiece.

A material handling clamp having a proportional relief valve delivering pressurized fluid to clamp arms that grasp a load, and having a controller configured to receive load geometry data and variably control the proportional relief valve to provide a target clamp force.

Systems and methods for gas detection within vehicles are disclosed herein. An example method includes monitoring background gas concentrations in a vehicle using a robot having a gas module having a non-selective sensor and a selective sensor, determining a concern index based on output of the gas module, determining when the concern index exceeds a threshold which indicates presence of a non-atmospheric gas, causing the robot to traverse an operating area when the concern index exceeds the threshold to search for a source of the non-atmospheric gas by measuring gas concentration gradients, classifying the non-atmospheric gas using the selective sensor of the gas module and identifying a location of the source of the non-atmospheric gas in the vehicle based on the gas concentration gradients.

The present technology relates to a cooking system capable of providing novel cooking experiences. A cooking system according to an aspect of the present technology includes: a top plate unit including a first top plate and a second top plate; a top plate drive unit that moves at least either top plate of the first top plate and the second top plate; a cooking assistance unit provided in a cooking assistance space that appears by movement of the at least either top plate; an arm movement unit that moves a cooking arm including an attaching/detaching portion capable of attaching/detaching an attachment having a cooking function along a movement mechanism provided in the cooking assistance space; and an arm control unit that controls driving of the cooking arm in accordance with a cooking process. The present technology can be applied to a system kitchen having a robotic function.

The robotic system includes a robotic arm; a shape information acquisition section acquiring shape information of an object, based on a time difference between time when laser beam is emitted by an light emitting section and time when reflected light is received by a light receiving section; an inertial sensor acquiring position information of the robotic arm during damped vibration when the moving robotic arm becomes stationary; and a control section identifying the position and posture of an object, based on shape information and position information, wherein the control section performs first control to identify a position and an posture of the object based on shape information and position information at a first time and shape information and position information at a second time after the first time during damped vibration of the robotic arm.

The present process of controlling an industrial robot includes steps consisting of calculating, in the modules implemented by the central unit, a time-dependent composite setpoint defining articular forces and velocities, according to a target trajectory and to an operating mode; calculating, in modules implemented by the central unit, a behavior matrix which describes a desired behavior of the robot arm, defining directions along which the calculated composite setpoint is to be applied; calculating, in a module implemented by the in auxiliary unit, an articular force setpoint for controlling the axis controller module; and calculating, in the axis controller module implemented by the auxiliary unit, the control setpoints for the power units according to the articular force setpoint.

Some aspects include a method for operating a cleaning robot, including: capturing LIDAR data; generating a first iteration of a map of the environment in real time; capturing sensor data from different positions within the environment; capturing movement data indicative of movement of the cleaning robot; aligning and integrating newly captured LIDAR data with previously captured LIDAR data at overlapping points; generating additional iterations of the map based on the newly captured LIDAR data and at least some of the newly captured sensor data; localizing the cleaning robot; planning a path of the cleaning robot; and actuating the cleaning robot to drive along a trajectory that follows along the planned path by providing pulses to one or more electric motors of wheels of the cleaning robot.

A boundary protection method and system of a radiation detection robot. The boundary protection method comprises: a first laser radar and a second laser radar are arranged diagonally, a first marking rod and a second marking rod are arranged diagonally; a boundary of an interlocking zone is defined by the first laser radar, the second laser radar, the first marking rod and the second marking rod; the object to be detected is placed in the interlocking zone; the radiation detection robot uses rays to detect the object to be detected in the interlocking zone; an early warning zone is provided outside the interlocking zone; wherein when it is detected that a person or object has intruded into the interlocking zone, the radiation detection robot stops emitting rays; and when it is detected that a person or object has intruded into the early warning zone, a warning is issued directly.

Some aspects include a method for operating a cleaning robot, including: capturing LIDAR data; generating a first iteration of a map of the environment in real time; capturing sensor data from different positions within the environment; capturing movement data indicative of movement of the cleaning robot; aligning and integrating newly captured LIDAR data with previously captured LIDAR data at overlapping points; generating additional iterations of the map based on the newly captured LIDAR data and at least some of the newly captured sensor data; localizing the cleaning robot; planning a path of the cleaning robot; and actuating the cleaning robot to drive along a trajectory that follows along the planned path by providing pulses to one or more electric motors of wheels of the cleaning robot.