In a picking mechanism for picking four or more columnar objects, when the plurality of objects have been picked, the objects are respectively held by holding member and supported by guide members while arranged on a base member in a plurality of rows, wherein a total sectional area of the guide members provided in regions of the base member that are each surrounded by circumferences of four circles serving as projections of four objects is smaller than a total sectional area of the guide members provided in regions of the base member that are each surrounded by one or two sides of a virtual rectangle, the virtual rectangle being formed so as to surround all of a plurality of circles serving as the projections of all of the plurality of objects while contacting the circumferences of the plurality of circles, and two or one of the projections.

A machine for filling and packaging containers including but not limited to bottles, cartridges, and syringes includes a wall that delimits an operating chamber in which at least one handling arm is arranged and which is facing at least one station placed externally to the operating chamber for the treatment of one or more of the containers. An intermediate element includes at least one coupling member configured to be alternatively operatively associable to the station and to the handling arm, with the intermediate element further including a coupling assembly integral to the intermediate element itself and different than coupling member. The coupling assembly is configured to removably hold one or more of the containers to be treated.

A system and method for flexibly forming a casting mold and for manufacturing a casting model or a molded body having a mounting platform, a plurality of shaping rods for forming the casting mold or the molded body and a conveying unit for conveying the shaping rods to the mounting platform, the conveying unit is configured to individually grip and to place the shaping rods on the mounting platform, such that a stack of the shaping rods is formable, and that a side of the stack is formable by the position of the shaping rods, to form a region of the casting mold and wherein the positions of the single shaping rods in the stack reproduce the shape of the molded body, wherein the shaping rods are gluable to each other, such that the stack forms the molded body.

A programmable permanent magnet actuator, a magnetic field generation apparatus and a method of controlling thereof. The actuator has a first body that is a ferromagnetic material, a second body that is a single magnetized ferromagnet and a magnetic field generation device associable to the second body to generate a magnetic field in proximity with the second body. The actuator also has a controller adapted to control the magnetic field generation device to generate a controlled magnetic field. The controlled magnetic field is adapted to modify a magnetization of the second body such as to produce with the second body a required magnetic field to move one of the first or the second body with respect to one another according to a desired position or a desired torque. The desired position or the desired torque is maintained even after the application of the controlled magnetic field. The apparatus has a permanent magnet that has an intrinsic coercivity (Hci) value that is greater than 200 kA/m and a remanence (Br) value that is greater than 0.4 Tesla. The apparatus also has a magnetic field generation device associated to the permanent magnet and a controller connected to the magnetic field generation device. The controller is adapted to control the magnetic field generation device to produce a controlled magnetic field to variably modify a magnetization of the permanent magnet in order to produce a desired variable magnetic field and influence the electrically charged or magnetized material when placed in the desired variable magnetic field.

A method of assembling a fastener structure on a plate body is introduced. The fastener structure includes a body portion and a fastening body. The body portion has a solderable layer, and the solderable layer is soldered to a plate body. The fastening body combines movably with the body portion. The fastening body has a head and a fastening portion. The body portion or the fastening body is provided on the plate body for soldering after it is picked up by a tool so that the body portion can combine with the plate body. Also, the body portion or the fastening body combines with an assisting pickup unit, and the fastener structure is provided on the plate body for soldering after it is picked up by a tool through the assisting pickup unit so that the body portion can combine with the plate body.

An interactive laboratory robotic system is described that includes devices for use in a laboratory including a robotic assistant that can perform tasks and that can be controlled and configured by humans. The robot may assist personnel in performing repetitive tasks within a laboratory, and capture and store transactional and analytical data, such as during a DNA sequencing process. The robot may include sensors and/or cameras to detect, recognize, and track objects in an environment, and a manipulable arm having a hand for grasping objects. Other components of the system may include a sample tray graspable by the robot; a tray carriage for holding sample trays within equipment; an interactive shelf for holding sample trays; a mobile cart for mating with and charging the robot; and an accessory unit to enable the robot to open doors of equipment. The system may help to reduce or eliminate mistakes by personnel.

Suction gripper 14 includes fixing member 1 including hole part 7, grasping part 2 including a plurality of flexible and airtight bag parts 2a and 2b whose interiors are coupled together in the central axis direction of hole part 7 with fixing member 1 therebetween, the plurality of bag parts 2a and 2b being filled with powder 8 or particles and fluid, and hardening unit 3 configured to harden the plurality of bag parts 2a and 2b. Grasping part 2 has a configuration in which when a workpiece is pushed against any of the plurality of bag parts 2a and 2b, the contact portion with the workpiece conform to the shape of the workpiece while the other bag part expands in accordance with the deformation.

A workpiece holding device includes a plurality of holding claws configured to hold a workpiece, and holding cylinders as claw opening/closing members configured to displace the holding claws in a direction closer to or away from a first workpiece. The holding cylinders are provided for the holding claws, respectively. Therefore, the plurality of holding claws can be opened/closed individually. The holding cylinders are held on a support disk as a holding member in a movable manner. That is, by moving the holding cylinders to arbitrary positions on the support disk, the holding cylinders are positioned fixedly.

A system (10) for loading a dishwasher which is designed as, in particular, a commercial conveyor dishwasher (1). The system (10) has a feed conveyor belt (11) for feeding washware (9a, 9b, 9c) to a loading region of the conveyor dishwasher (1). The system (10) also has a sorting arrangement for sorting the washware (9a, 9b, 9c), which is fed to the loading region of the conveyor dishwasher (1) by means of the feed conveyor belt (11), in accordance with predefined or predefinable washware groups. At least one loading arrangement (13a, 13b, 13c) is associated with the sorting arrangement for the purpose of automatically loading the conveyor dishwasher (1) with washware (9a, 9b, 9c) of one of the predefined or predefinable washware groups.

In one embodiment, the present disclosure includes a cloud computer system for controlling a plurality of remote devices comprising a cloud server including a cloud based operating system comprising a data model stored in a computer memory. The data model includes commands that may be performed by a plurality of remote devices in a remote system and, for each remote device, one or more operations for triggering processes executed by the remote device. The cloud based operating system generates a set of instructions from the plurality of commands and corresponding operations to control a portion of the remote devices to perform a task.