A joint includes: a motor coupled to the joint, the motor configured to move the joint; a joint side sensor configured to measure a parameter of interest of a joint side target; a motor side sensor configured to measure the parameter of interest of the motor; and a controller configured to control the motor, the controller operably connected to the joint side sensor, the controller operably connected to the motor side sensor.

A drive apparatus includes a motor having a drive part that rotates a first shaft member; a transmission part that transmits rotation of the first shaft member to a second shaft member which is different from the first shaft member; a first detection device provided at the first shaft member to detect information regarding rotation of the drive part; a second detection device provided at the second shaft member to detect information regarding rotation of the transmission part; and a prevention part that prevents movement of foreign substance toward a detection part which includes at least one of the first detection device and the second detection device.

Provide is a robot and a control method thereof in which the motion of an arm 12 as a specified limb among a plurality of limbs 12 and 14 extended from a body 10 is controlled according to a specified trajectory. If a first interaction state, in which a hand 126, which is an end effector, interacts with a horizontal wood member L (j) of a ladder L in a first mode is implemented, then a control command is given to an actuator 41 that drives the hand 126 to cause the hand 126 to perform a grasping motion, thereby implementing a second interaction state, in which the hand 126 interacts with the horizontal wood member L (j) in a second manner. If the second interaction state is implemented, a control command is given to a brake 42 to maintain a motion halt state of the hand 126.

A robot wrist structure includes a first wrist element, a second wrist element, and a third wrist element which are respectively rotatable about a first axis to a third axis; drive motors for the second and third wrist elements; and gear sets that reduce speeds of rotation of the drive motors. The gear sets respectively include a driven-side large-diameter gear that rotates the second wrist element and a driven-side small-diameter gear that rotates the third wrist element, where the driven-side large-diameter gear and the driven-side small-diameter gear are coaxially arranged so as to be rotatable about the second axis. The small-diameter gear is fixed to a drive-side bevel gear that meshes with a driven-side bevel gear fixed to the third wrist element. The second wrist element includes a first housing that is fixed to the large-diameter gear; and a second housing rotatably supports the third wrist element.

A motor control system includes first processing circuitry that controls a motor. An upper-level communication path connects an upper-level communication port of the first processing circuitry to second processing circuitry that sends an instruction to the first processing circuitry via the upper-level communication path. A lower-level communication path connects a lower-level communication port of the first processing circuitry to a plurality of devices connected in series to each other. The devices include rotational angle detection circuitry and output circuitry. The rotational angle detection circuitry detects a rotation angle of the motor. The output circuitry outputs associated information that is associated with the motor and is different from the rotational angle or that is associated with an industrial device associated with the motor. The first processing circuitry performs a predetermined processing based on the rotational angle and the associated information, and sends a result of the predetermined processing to the second processing circuitry.

A method estimates a position where an abnormality has occurred. The method for estimating a position where an abnormality has occurred in a robot includes an abnormality detection step of detecting occurrence of an abnormality, and a position detection step of detecting a position where the abnormality has occurred when the occurrence of the abnormality is detected in the abnormality detection step.

Motor modules for multi-arm robot apparatus are described. The motor modules can be used individually or stacked and assembled to make up one-axis, 2-axis, 3-axis, 4-axis, 5-axis, 6-axis motor assemblies, or more. One or more of the motor modules have a stator assembly including a stator received in the stator housing, and a rotor assembly abutting the stator assembly, the rotor assembly including a rotor housing, a drive shaft, a bearing assembly supporting the drive shaft, and a rotor coupled to the drive shaft. A vacuum barrier member is positioned between the rotor and the stator. Multi-axis motor drive assemblies, multi-axis robot apparatus, electronic device manufacturing systems, and methods of assembling drive assemblies are described, as are numerous other aspects.

Provided are an SEA, a method of controlling the SEA and a system using the same. The SEA includes a motor-side rotation unit coupled to a driving motor and rotated by rotatory power of the driving motor, a load-side rotation unit coupled to the motor-side rotation unit to transfer the rotatory power of the driving motor to a load, and at least one pair of elastic members provided in spaces between the motor-side rotation unit and the load-side rotation unit. A frame having accommodation spaces to which the pair of elastic members is fixed is formed in any one of the motor-side rotation unit and the load-side rotation unit.

A robotic system comprising: a joint coupling a linkage to an additional linkage; and at least one cable; wherein the joint includes a motor having a shaft, a strain wave gear having a flexible member coupled to a circular spline, a conduit, and a bearing; wherein the motor is configured to rotate the shaft in a first direction and the strain wave gear is configured to rotate a rotatable member, the rotatable member including one of the flexible member or the circular spline; wherein the conduit is configured to rotate in response to rotation of the rotatable member; wherein the at least one cable passes through both the bearing and into the additional linkage but does not pass through either of the strain wave gear or the motor.

An object of the present invention is to prevent unnecessary driving stop of a stepping motor. A robot arm section includes a robot arm, a stepping motor 31a, a motor driver 31b, an encoder 31c and a step-out detection section 31e. The robot arm has a joint J1. The stepping motor generates power for operating the joint. The motor driver drives the stepping motor according to a target angle. The encoder outputs an encoder pulse every time a drive shaft of the stepping motor rotates by a predetermined angle. The step-out detection section detects a step-out of the stepping motor based on the target angle and a current angle of the stepping motor that is identified based on the encoder pulse. When the stepping motor does not recover from the step-out before a predetermined grace time elapses from a time at which the step-out is detected, the motor driver stops driving the stepping motor at the time point at which the grace time elapses.