A robotic kitchen assistant for frying includes a robotic arm, a fryer basket, and a robotic arm adapter assembly allowing the robotic arm to pick up and manipulate the fryer basket. The robotic arm adapter includes opposing gripping members to engage the fryer basket. A utensil adapter assembly is mounted to the handle of the fryer basket, and the opposing gripper members are actuated to capture a three-dimensional (3D) feature of the utensil adapter assembly. The robotic arm adapter assembly can include an agitator mechanism to shake the fryer basket or another utensil as desired. Related methods are also described.

A gripper for an articulable arm of an automated processing tool is described that is suitable for picking and placing objects on a wire harness peg board. The gripper includes at least two spaced apart opposing grips. Each grip further includes spaced apart protrusions. The opposing grips and protrusions actuate between open and closed positions. When in the closed position the opposing grips are capable of enclosing a perimeter of an object and may further support an underside of the object. The gripper may further grip a wire so that the automated processing tool may orient the wire and apply a constant upward, downward or lateral tension on the wire.

An end effector (400) for a robotic arm, the end effector (400) comprising: two pipe engaging jaws (404), each jaw comprising an inner contour configured for engaging a pipe section, wherein at least one jaw (404) is a fixed jaw; wherein the end effector (400) is configured to restrict radial movement of the pipe section while permitting axial movement.

A system and method for gripping a cylindrical object. The system including: a housing; a plurality of gripping arms in the housing, the gripping arms in pairs each on an opposite side of a centerline plane from another; and a driving wedge in the housing and configured such that movement of the driving wedge moves each pair of gripping arms towards or away from each other while remaining equidistant from the centerline plane. The method including: opening the plurality of gripping arms against a bias by sliding a wedge in a first direction to slide the plurality of gripping arms apart while maintaining an equal predetermined distance from a part alignment position; placing a cylindrical body between the plurality of gripping arms; and closing the plurality of gripping arms by sliding the wedge in an opposite direction to allow the biasing force to close the gripping arms.

A gripping device includes a body defining a constraint opening. A gripping member is engaged to the body and is configured to grasp a container. The gripping member includes deformable gripping elements arranged in correspondence of the constraint opening and configured to embrace, when the gripping device is in use, a respective portion of the container. The gripping elements are configured to form an inner gripping space. The gripping member is configured to operate at least between a rest configuration and a gripping configuration wherein the deformable gripping elements are deformed and retain, when the gripping device is in use and in correspondence of the inner gripping space, a container.

Systems and methods for clearing a top drive from an operational area of the mast such that operations may be performed along the rail without interference from the top drive. Systems and methods of the present disclosure provide for arranging the top drive in a parked configuration outside of, or generally behind, the mast. A guide rail may be arranged within an operational area of a mast and may have a pair of interchangeable rail sections, each of which may be configured for arrangement in either an operating configuration, where the rail section may be positioned within the operational area of the mast to form part of the rail, or a parked configuration, where the rail section may be positioned outside of the operational area. Each interchangeable rail section may be pivotable about an axis and may be arranged on a pivotable gate of the mast.

A robot system is provided with a robot, a hand, and a range sensor that acquires information about a distance to a workpiece. Claw parts of the hand include grip regions having a shape for gripping the workpiece. A controller stops the robot when the hand collides with the workpiece. The controller determines whether or not a target workpiece can be gripped by a part other than the grip regions of the hand. When it is determined that the target workpiece can be gripped by the part other than the grip regions, the controller performs control for gripping the target workpiece by using the hand, and for moving the target workpiece inside a container.

In a robot (1) for gripping and/or holding objects (2), in particular workpieces, tools or carrier parts, the robot comprising: at least one robot arm (3, 4, 5) which is supported on a support frame (19) and is movable in space in at least one translational and/or rotational degree of freedom, a gripping and/or holding device (6), on which the respective object (2) is supported in a positionally oriented manner and/or held in a rotational arrangement, at least one electric motor (9) provided in the gripping and/or holding device (6), by means of which a torque and/or a clamping force is generated which acts on the object (2), and a drive shaft (24) mounted in the robot arm (5), which is coupled in a driving manner to the gripping and/or holding device (6), preferably in such a way that the gripping and/or holding device (6) rotates about its own longitudinal axis (6′),
the gripping and/or holding device (6) arranged at the free end of the robot arm (5) should be freely movable in space, so that rotation about its own longitudinal axis (6′) can be carried out as often and as quickly as desired.

This is achieved in that an interface (31) is provided between a free end (10) of the robot arm (5) at the end and the gripping and/or holding device (6), which interface (31) is bridged by a coupler (25) fixed in a non-rotating arrangement to the robot arm (5) and by a flange (11) adapted thereto, which flange (11) is connected in a non-rotating arrangement to the gripping and/or holding device (6) and the drive shaft (24), in that a first inductively operated transceiver (12) is provided in the coupler (25), which transceiver (12) is connected to a power source (15) via an electrical line (14) fed to the robot arm (5), in that a second inductively operated transceiver (13) is provided in the flange (11), which is connected to the electric motor (9) in the gripping and/or holding device (6) via electrical lines (14), and in that an air gap (21) is provided between the coupler (25) and the flange (11) as a component of the interface (31).

A driverless transport vehicle for autonomous transport and replacement of at least one spinning can. In order to provide a driverless transport vehicle which reliably ensures an automated supply of the spinning machines fed with fibre band, the driverless transport vehicle has an autonomous travelling drive, a transport platform for accommodating the at least one spinning can, and a manipulator unit for taking up and setting down the at least one spinning can, the manipulator unit having a gripper for grasping the spinning can and an actuating device for adjusting the gripper.

A bottle gripping assembly including a pair of bottle gripping arms each having a grip member for gripping a bottle therebetween. The bottle gripping assembly also includes a base supporting the bottle gripping arms, with the base having a top surface and a recess into the top surface, a wear pad located in the recess of the base, with the wear pad and the base under the upper surface of the recess having a pair of aligned fastener holes, a pair of fasteners, with each one of the fasteners extending through one of the bottle gripping arms and into one of the fastener holes to connect the bottle gripping arms to the wear pad and the base, and a pair of wear bushings, with each of the wear bushings having a tubular portion that extends into one of the bottle gripping arms and surrounds a portion of the fasteners.