Methods and systems for training a robotic manipulator. The system may include one or more sensor devices and a robotic manipulator for executing an item grasping strategy to grasp an item. The system may further evaluate the item grasping strategy to determine whether the strategy was successful.

Ultrasonic ranging systems and methods that emit coded bursts and correlate transduced acoustical echoes of the bursts with a receive template characterizing a burst code to determine time-of-flight information use receive templates of time-variable length to improve short-range object detection. The template length is based on a time index measured from the start of the burst emission. The detection can account for a dead zone of transducer ringing following a burst. A time-variable gain that is also based on the time index can be applied to the correlated signal. The length and gain can be adjusted with reduced temporal frequency to reduce computation cost.

A robot for detecting and saving a life, includes: a body part including a plurality of unit joints; a head part which is provided at the front of the body part in the direction in which the body part moves forward, and which has a gripper capable of picking up an object by a plurality of tongs parts that are folded and unfolded; and an extension part capable of extending forward from the head part so as to enter a small space that is difficult for the body part to enter.

A robot is equipped with a processor. The processor detects external appearance or audio of a living being, and by controlling the robot, causes the robot to execute an operation in accordance with liking data indicating preferences of the robot regarding external appearance or audio and the detected external appearance or audio of the living being.

An apparatus for estimating a proximity direction of an obstacle includes an acoustic transmitter attached to a surface of the apparatus; a first acoustic receiver spaced apart from the surface of the apparatus; a second acoustic receiver spaced apart from the surface of the apparatus; and at least one processor configured to: control the acoustic transmitter to generate an acoustic wave along the surface; obtain first and second proximity direction signals based on first and second acoustic wave signals corresponding to the generated acoustic wave; and estimate a proximity direction of the obstacle with respect to the apparatus based on the first and second proximity direction signals.

An electronic device can include a microphone; a camera module; a short-range communication module supporting short-range wireless communication; a communication module configured to communicate with a voice recognition server; a memory; and a processor. The processor may be configured to: identify whether an object accessing the electronic device is a user; determine whether a voice interaction condition is satisfied on the basis of context information; when the user's access is identified, if the voice interaction condition is satisfied, receive user voice from the microphone, and if the voice interaction condition is not satisfied, output external interaction information that enables an external electronic device to interact with the voice recognition server by using the short-range communication module; receive user voice analysis information from the voice recognition server by using the communication module; and perform at least one operation on the basis of the received user voice analysis information.

A robot is equipped with a processor. The processor detects external appearance or audio of a living being, and by controlling the robot, causes the robot to execute an operation in accordance with liking data indicating preferences of the robot regarding external appearance or audio and the detected external appearance or audio of the living being.

A system for polishing a surface of a component includes a motorized apparatus including a body, a drive system coupled to the body, and an arm including a proximal end coupled to the body and a distal end opposite the proximal end. The motorized apparatus further includes a tool coupled to the distal end of the arm. The tool is configured to polish the surface of the component. The motorized apparatus also includes an actuator coupled to the arm. The system also includes a controller configured to position the tool relative to the component by positioning at least one of the body and the arm relative to the component to reach the target area on the component while maintaining a distance between the tool and the body that is less than a threshold distance. The threshold distance is less than a full reach of the arm and is determined to prevent vibrations of the tool and the arm from exceeding a predefined level.

Certain aspects relate to systems and techniques for preparing a robotic system for surgery. In one aspect, the method includes a robotic arm, a sensor configured to generate information indicative of a location of the robotic arm, a processor, and at least one computer-readable memory in communication with the processor and having stored thereon computer-executable instructions. The instructions are configured to cause the processor to receive the information from the sensor, determine that the robotic arm is located at a first position in which a first axis associated with the robotic arm is not in alignment with a second axis associated with a port installed in a patient, and provide a command to move the robotic arm to a second position in which the first axis associated with the robotic arm is in alignment with the second axis.

A method of collision localization on a robotic device includes obtaining audio signals from a plurality of acoustic sensors spaced apart along the robotic device; identifying, based on a collision being detected, a strongest audio signal; identifying a primary onset time for an acoustic sensor producing the strongest audio signal, the primary onset time being a time at which waves propagating from the collision reach the acoustic sensor producing the strongest audio signal; generating a virtual onset time set, by shifting a calibration manifold, based on the identified primary onset time, the calibration manifold representing relative onset times from evenly spaced marker locations on the robotic device to the plurality of acoustic sensors; determining scores for the marker locations based a standard deviation of elements in the virtual onset time set; and estimating a location of the collision based on a highest score of the determined scores.