A robotic apparatus including a plurality of rigid body sections that move relative to each other by one or more multi-degree of freedom joints. The robotic apparatus can traverse a fixed frame by attaching its distal ends to the frame and moving the rigid body sections relative to each other.

The present disclosure discloses a robot control method as well as an apparatus, and a robot using the same. The method includes: obtaining a human pose image; obtaining pixel information of key points in the human pose image; obtaining three-dimensional positional information of key points of a human arm according to the pixel information of the preset key points; obtaining a robotic arm kinematics model of a robot; obtaining an angle of each joint in the robotic arm kinematics model according to the three-dimensional positional information of the key points of the human arm and the robotic arm kinematics model; and controlling an arm of the robot to perform a corresponding action according to the angle of each joint. The control method does not require a three-dimensional stereo camera to collect three-dimensional coordinates of a human body, which reduces the cost to a certain extent.

A substrate transport apparatus including; a frame, a substrate transport arm connected to the frame, the substrate transport arm having an end effector, and a drive section having at least one motor coupled to the substrate transport arm, wherein the at least one motor defines a kinematic portion of the drive section configured to effect kinematic motion of the substrate transport arm, and the drive section includes an accessory portion adjacent the kinematic portion, wherein the accessory portion has another motor, different and distinct from the at least one motor, the another motor of the accessory portion is operably coupled to and configured to drive one or more accessory device independent of the kinematic motion of the substrate transport arm.

A robotic device includes one or more joints to position an end effector in a plurality of degrees of freedom. A navigation system tracks an actual position of the end effector. One or more controllers identify a condition wherein the actual position of the end effector contacts a virtual constraint. An anticipated movement of the end effector is evaluated from the actual position to a home position of the end effector. The one or more controllers detect an anticipated collision between the end effector and the virtual constraint and compute a target position of the end effector that evades the anticipated collision. The target position is spaced from the actual position and also contacts the virtual constraint. The one or more joints are controlled to slide the end effector from the actual position to target position along the virtual constraint.

An exoskeleton structure includes a back assembly, an arm assembly, and a shoulder connection device. The shoulder connection device includes a first connection part, a first pivot connecting the first connection part to the back assembly while allowing rotation of the first connection part around a first axis of rotation, a second connection part, a second pivot connecting the first connection part to the second connection part while allowing rotation of the second connection part around a second axis of rotation orthogonal to the first axis, and a third pivot connecting the second connection part to the arm assembly while allowing rotation around a third axis of rotation orthogonal to the second axis of rotation. The second pivot is arranged so that the second axis of rotation forms a non-zero angle with an abduction/adduction axis of the shoulder and a non-zero angle with a flexion/extension axis of the shoulder.

A three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism with curved sliding pairs includes a fixed platform, a moving platform, and three curved branches disposed between the fixed platform and the moving platform. Each of the curved branches includes a first curved link and a second curved link that share a common arc center. One end of the first curved link is connected to fixed platform by a rotational pair. One end of the second curved link is disposed in a cavity at another end of the first curved link. The second curved link is operative to perform a reciprocating motion along a tangent of an arc of the first curved link. Another end of the second curved link is connected to the moving platform by a ball joint. The axes of the three rotational pairs of the three curved branches coincide with each other and are perpendicular to the fixed platform. In the three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism with curved sliding pairs, the moving platform of the parallel mechanism is rotatable around the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis of a three-dimensional coordinate system taking the arc center of the three curved branches as the origin, where the rotation of the moving platform about the Z axis is decoupled from the rotation in the other two orientations.

The present disclosure provides a joint control method for a serial robot and a serial robot using the same. The method includes: performing a analysis on an end joint in the plurality of joints, and calculating the force of the previous joint acting on the end joint; performing a analysis on each of the other joints in the plurality of joints, and calculating the force of the previous joint acting on the joint; obtaining an angular velocity and an angular acceleration of each joint after obtaining the force of the previous joint acting on the joint, and calculating a torque corresponding to each joint; and projecting the torque corresponding to each joint to a motor corresponding to the joint to obtain a torque to be applied to the motor at a current time. In this manner, which improves the tracking precision of the end joint while reduces the tracking error.

There is provided a spherical mechanism robot assembly for accessing a confined space in a vehicle, to perform confined space operation(s) in the vehicle. The assembly includes a base structure configured for attachment to the vehicle. The assembly includes a spherical mechanism structure having a first end attached to the base structure, and having a second end. The spherical mechanism structure includes a plurality of mechanical links, joints coupling the plurality of mechanical links together, and a plurality of actuators having one or more actuators coupled at each joint of the plurality of joints. The assembly includes an end effector attached to the second end of the spherical mechanism structure. The assembly is configured such that a majority portion remains outside of the confined space, while a remaining portion of the assembly accesses and occupies the confined space in the vehicle, to perform the confined space operation(s) in the vehicle.

A robotic arm according to various implementations includes: a tool driver configured to hold a surgical tool; a first section comprising a first end coupled to a base, a second end distal from first end; a first link that includes a motor configured to rotate at least a portion of the first section around a pitch axis; a second link coupled to the first link, the second link including a motor configured to rotate at least a portion of the first section around a roll axis; and a second section comprising: a first end coupled to the second end of the first section, a second end distal from the first end, a first link that includes a motor configured to rotate at least a portion of the second section around a roll axis, a second link coupled to the first link.

A manipulator has a manipulator arm with a manipulator flange at one free end. The flange holds an end effector having an application device for machining a workpiece. The manipulator flange is rotatable about hand axes. A first hand axis extends in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the manipulator arm, a second hand axis extends transversely to the first hand axis and a third hand axis extends transversely to the second hand axis. The hand axes intersect at a common intersection point. A machining force acting on the application device is diverted into the manipulator arm by way of the end effector. So that process forces during a mechanical operation do not lead to impairment of the machining pose of the manipulator arm, provision is made to fix the application device to the manipulator flange at an attachment angle to the first hand.