A power-assisted negative pressure type flexible exoskeleton system used for an extravehicular spacesuit. The system includes an exoskeleton pneumatic control system, a plurality of inertial sensors, a plurality of negative pressure type flexible actuators and a plurality of flexible bending sensors, wherein pneumatic energy is provided for the exoskeleton system by a gas source in the exoskeleton control system, compressed air is cleaned by a water-separating gas filter, normal work of a pneumatic actuating element is guaranteed, a pressure reducing valve and a pressure gauge carry out voltage stability control on the output pressure of the gas source, a two-position two-way valve serves as a gas source switch valve, and three-position three-way valves, proportional pressure valves and the flexible actuators form four pneumatic control loops of the left and right elbow joints and the left and right knee joints of the exoskeleton system.

In an embodiment, a method and system use various sensors to determine a shape of a collection of materials (e.g., foodstuffs). A controller can determine a trajectory which achieves the desired end-state, possibly chosen from a set of feasible, collision-free trajectories to execute, and a robot executes that trajectory. The robot, executing that trajectory, scoops, grabs, or otherwise acquires the desired amount of material from the collection of materials at a desired location. The robot then deposits the collected material in the desired receptacle at a specific location and orientation.

Provided is an alimentary-product assembling and dispensing device comprising: a plurality of alimentary-ingredient dispensers positioned to dispense respective ingredients in a plurality of different locations of a robotic work environment; a robot configured to receive an open-top vessel from an open-top-vessel dispenser and move the open-top vessel to the different locations to receive different ingredients from the plurality of alimentary-ingredient dispensers, wherein the robot comprises four or fewer degrees of freedom; and a vending aperture through which consumers retrieve vended alimentary products assembled by the robot from ingredients dispensed from the plurality of alimentary-ingredient dispensers.

A substrate transport device includes an arm, an end effector coupled to the arm, a driver configured to lift the arm so that the end effector receives a substrate, and a controller configured to control an output of the driver to change a lifting speed of the arm. While lifting the arm at a first speed to lift the end effector toward the substrate, the controller changes the lifting speed to a second speed that is lower than the first speed when the end effector starts to raise a height position of the substrate.

A force applying auxiliary device and a control method thereof are provided. The force applying auxiliary device includes a sensor group, a processor, and a force applying driver. The sensor group includes a first sensor disposed on a first side and a second sensor disposed on a second side. The processor collects motion posture data of a user according to the first sensor and the second sensor, and determines whether a motion of the user is abnormal. When determining that the motion of the user is abnormal, the processor selects at least one preset abnormal pattern as a specific abnormal pattern according to the motion posture data, and controls the force applying driver to provide a force by using the specific abnormal pattern. A force difference between first and second forces applied to first and second side feet is adjusted based on a difference in sampling values between the sensors.

In one embodiment, a method includes by a robotic system: sending, by an automatic tuning controller, driving commands to actuators of the robotic system, performing, for each of the actuators, one or more measurements of an actual pose of the respective actuator in response to the driving commands, generating, for each of the actuators, one or more configuration parameters for the respective actuator based on the one or more measurements, and storing the configuration parameters for the actuators in a data store of the robotic system.

A system and method of breakaway clutching in a device includes an arm including a first joint and a control unit coupled to the arm. The control unit includes one or more processors. The control unit switches the first joint from a first state of the first joint to a second state of the first joint in response to an external stimulus applied to the arm exceeding a first threshold, wherein movement of the first joint is more restricted in the first state of the first joint than in the second state of the first joint, switches the first joint from the second state to the first state in response to a speed associated with the first joint falling below a speed threshold, and prevents the switching of the first joint from the first state to the second state when the arm is in a predetermined mode.

A waste sorting robot can include a manipulator comprising a suction gripper for interacting with one or more waste objects to be sorted within a working area, and wherein the manipulator is moveable within the working area. There is a controller configured to send control instructions to the manipulator. At least one pressure sensor is in fluid communication with the suction gripper and configured to generate a pressure signal in dependence on a fluid pressure in the suction gripper. The controller is configured to receive the pressure signal and to determine manipulator instructions in dependence on the pressure signal.

A smart knee brace including a knee brace, multiple thigh bands, multiple shin bands, and multiple brace straps removably attached to one another and multiple motion actuators and sensors. Each motion actuator is connected to one brace strap and each sensor is connected to one motion actuator to measure an orientation of corresponding brace strap and generate a motion signal. A computing device receives the motion signals from the sensors; measures a current range of motion of the thigh, the shin, and the knee, and, based on the received motion signals, and generates drive signals based on the measured current range of motion. A native smart knee brace computer application on a smart phone of the user is operatively connected to the computing device and a cloud application server provide higher level analysis of the motions of the smart knee brace.

A robot and a robot-based container storage and removal method. The robot comprises: a master control processing unit (110), a pick-and-place mechanism (120) and a marker detection unit (130), wherein according to target storage and removal position information of a target inventory container, the master control processing unit (110) controls a robot body to move to a first horizontal position and controls the pick-and-place mechanism (120) to move to a first height position; when the robot body and the pick-and-place mechanism (120) stop moving, the marker detection unit (130) determines a target pick-and-place marker from a target inventory support to which the target inventory container belongs; and the master control processing unit (110) also calibrates the position of the pick-and-place mechanism (120) according to the position of the target pick-and-place marker, so as to control the calibrated pick-and-place mechanism (120) to perform a storage operation or a removal operation on the target inventory container. By means of the solution, a pick-and-place position of a pick-and-place mechanism (120) of the robot can be precisely positioned and moved, such that the pick-and-place mechanism (120) can quickly and accurately store or remove a target inventory container.