Certain aspects relate to a medical system that includes a robotically controllable field generator and an instrument guide. The instrument guide may guide a percutaneously insertable instrument along an insertion axis. The instrument guide may also be positioned on an electromagnetic (EM) field generator, where the EM field generator can generate an EM field. A first robotic arm may be coupled to the EM field generator and it may move the EM field generator and the instrument guide. The system then determines: an EM target positioned within a patient, and a registration that maps positions within an EM coordinate frame associated with the EM field to positions within a robotic coordinate frame. The system may also determine, based on the registration, a position of the EM target within the robotic coordinate frame. Based on the position of the EM target within the robotic coordinate frame, move the first robotic arm may move to align the insertion axis of the instrument guide with the EM target.

Certain aspects relate to systems with robotically controllable field generators and applications thereof. In one application, a robotic medical system, comprising a first robotic arm coupled to an electromagnetic (EM) field generator configured to generate an EM field, an EM sensor, and a processor. The processor may be configured to transmit a command to the first robotic arm to cause movement of the EM field generator along a robotic trajectory while the EM sensor remains at a location. An EM sensor trajectory of the EM sensor within the EM field corresponding to a period of time in which the EM field generator moved along the robotic trajectory may be detected. The robotic trajectory and the EM sensor trajectory may be analyzed to determine a difference between the robotic trajectory and the EM sensor trajectory; and EM distortion at the location may be detected comparing the difference and a threshold.

An apparatus includes a drive unit; and an arm assembly connected to the drive unit, where the arm assembly comprises a traversing platform having an end-effector configured to carry a payload located thereon; a linear actuation system configured to drive the traversing platform in a linear direction; and a magnetic support system comprising at least one guide attached to a frame of the arm assembly, a plurality of vertical actuators attached to the traversing platform, and a plurality of horizontal actuators attached to the traversing platform, the plurality of vertical actuators being configured, with the at least one guide, to move the traversing platform in a vertical direction relative to the linear direction, and the plurality of horizontal actuators being configured, with the at least one guide, to move the traversing platform in a horizontal direction relative to the linear direction.

A robot comprises: a main PCB having an antenna disposed thereon, the antenna disposed on an upper portion of the main PCB; and a sub-PCB spaced apart from the main PCB in a horizontal direction, wherein the main PCB comprises a non-overlap region that does not overlap the sub-PCB in both the horizontal direction and a vertical direction, and all or any portion of the antenna is disposed on the non-overlap region.

A sensing circuit (51), a logic circuit board, a joint control board, a main controller board and a robot (400). The sensing circuit (51) comprises a connecting terminal (514) and a detection circuit (210). The connecting terminal (514) is configured to be coupled with the electrode (120) disposed on a housing (100) of a mechanical equipment; the detection circuit (210) is coupled to the connecting terminal (514) so as to detect the distance between the electrode (120) and the external conductor or a change of the distance between the electrode (120) and the external conductor according to the capacitance between the electrode and the external conductor or a change of the capacitance between the electrode (120) and the external conductor, thereby obtaining an electrical signal representing the distance between the electrode (120) and the external conductor or a change of the distance between the electrode (120) and the external conductor

A method of avoiding collision between mechanical equipment (10) and obstacles, and a device and controller for this, by detecting whether an external conductor is approaching the device (10); when detecting that the external conductor is approaching the mechanical equipment (10), generating an electrical signal representing a distance between the external conductor and the housing of the mechanical equipment (10) or a change of the distance between the external conductor and the housing of the mechanical equipment (10); controlling the mechanical equipment (10) based on electrical signal so as to avoid the mechanical equipment (10) from collision with the external conductor or to reduce a strength of the collision.

A sensing circuit (51) including a connection terminal (514) configured to couple with an electrode (32) located on a housing of a mechanical device; and a detection circuit (513) configured to couple with the connection terminal (514) to detect a distance between the electrode (32) and an external conductor or a change of the distance between the electrode and an external conductor by utilizing a capacitance between the electrode (32) and the external conductor or a change of the capacitance between the electrode (32) and the external conductor, thus obtaining an electrical signal representing the distance between the electrode (32) and the external conductor or a change of the distance between the electrode (32) and the external conductor. The sensing circuit can perform non-contact distance detection on a grounded object.

A mobile robot system for automated operation of a data center or telecommunications office, includes a moveable robotic platform with a multiplicity of tools integrated therein, to operate on a network element within a bay, with integrated RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags and visual alignment markers attached to fiber optic connectors and ports of the network elements. The mobile robot system positions a robot probe arm with an RFID probe for proximity detection to identify a cable and associated fiber optic connector based on a unique RF identifier of a tag on the fiber optic connector. The robot probe arm has a connector gripper to engage and unplug the associated fiber optic connector.

Provided is an encoder, which is provided in a driving apparatus comprising a motor section configured to drive a first displacement section, which is connected to a fixed section via an elastic body, and a transmission section configured to convert a displacement of the first displacement section and transmit the displacement to the second displacement section, comprising: a first detector configured to detect first displacement information of the first displacement section; a second detector configured to detect second displacement information of the second displacement section; a third detector configured to detect third displacement information of the motor section relative to the fixed section; and a computing section configured to obtain information related to a driving amount of the motor section using the first displacement information and the second displacement information, and obtain information of a load on the motor section using the third displacement information.

A surgical robotic system senses position or orientation of an object, which may be a trocar that has a magnetic field. Magnetic field sensors are coupled to a surgical robotic arm. A machine learning model coupled to the magnetic field sensors is trained to output three-dimensional position and/or three-dimensional orientation of the trocar or other object. Other aspects are also described.