A jointed mechanism includes a passive pendulum system attached to and suspended from the multi-axis robot. The system includes one or more position sensors configured to measure a joint angle on the pendulum system, at least one arm, and an end-effector attached to a distal end of the pendulum system. A controller implements a method to selectively control motion of the robot in a plurality of control modes. The control modes include a Cooperative Mode and an Autonomous Mode. The controller is configured to detect contact with the end-effector when operating in the Autonomous Mode, and to automatically initiate a control action in response to the contact. The pendulum system may be a parallelogram arrangement.

A robotic work tool system, comprising a robotic work tool, said robotic work tool comprising a controller being configured to cause said robotic work tool to operate in a first operating mode, which first operating mode is based on a current position, said current position being determined based on signals received from a position determining device, such as Global Navigation Satellite System device; determine that said received signals are not reliable, and in response thereto cause said robotic work tool to operate according to second operating mode, which second operating mode is not based on a current position being determined based on said received signals.

A method for controlling a robot includes detecting current positions of joints of the robot and actuating the joints using drives of the robot based on the detected current joint positions such that at least one drive supports a manual guidance-induced movement of the joint actuated by the drive if a distance between the detected or target joint position and a specified first boundary has a first value. The drive supports the manual guidance-induced movement to a lesser degree if the distance has a second value which is lower than the first value. Additionally, the manual guidance-induced movement is oriented towards the first boundary.

A method for controlling at least one effector trajectory of an effector of a robot for solving a predefined task is proposed. A sequence of postures are acquired to modify at least one of a contact constraint topology and an object constraint topology. A set of constraint equations are generated based on at least one of the modified contact constraint topology and the modified object constraint topology. On the generated set of constraint equations, a constraint relaxation is performed to generate a task description including a set of relaxed constraint equations. The at least one effector trajectory is generated by applying a trajectory generation algorithm on the task description. An inverse kinematics algorithm is performed to generate a control signal from the at least one effector trajectory. At least one effector is controlled to execute the at least one effector trajectory based on the generated control signal.

A robotic system includes a jointed mechanism, position sensors, and a controller. The mechanism has an end-effector, and further includes actively-controlled joints and passive joints that are redundant with the actively-controlled joints. The position sensors are operable for measuring joint positions of the passive joints. The controller is in communication with the position sensors, and is programmed to execute a method to selectively control the actively-controlled joints in response to the measured joint positions using force control and/or a modeled impedance of the robotic mechanism. Possible control modes in impedance control include an Autonomous Mode in which an operator does not physically interact with the end-effector and a Cooperative Control Mode in which the operator physically interacts with the end-effector.

Systems and methods for controlling motion of remotely operated equipment such that a motion path is automatically determined for a plurality of joints of the remotely operated equipment based on an updated target position input received from an operator, a current position of the remotely operated equipment, and predetermined parameters indicative of the geometry of the plurality of joints. An optimized motion path may be provided that avoids detected obstacles and joint singularities of the remotely operated equipment.

A system and method are provided for controlling a robot for automatic positioning of a tool in a predetermined target pose. A six dimensional pose of a robot flange corresponding to the target pose is determined. An expanded kinematics of the robot is created by augmenting it with a virtual joint arranged in the tool. The virtual joint makes possible a restriction-free virtual rotation about a predetermined axis of the tool. From the six dimensional pose of the robot flange and the expanded kinematics, a path is determined by an automatic path planning module, in accordance with which the six dimensional pose of the robot flange may be moved to from an initial pose of the robot. Conflicts with a maximum physical scope of movement of the robot occurring during this process are resolved by a rotation of the virtual joint.

The disclosure relates to a method for operating a robot, a data memory with a corresponding program code, the corresponding robot, and a corresponding robot system. Different coordinate system and their relationships to one another are used to position a tool in a target pose. A stationary reference coordinate system originating at a robot foot of the robot and a target coordinate system originating at the tool are specified. Herein, a z-axis of the target coordinate system corresponds to a specified axis of the tool. The orientations of an x-axis and a y-axis of the target coordinate system are calculated by a first cross product of the orientation of the specified axis and a direction vector, that is not parallel thereto, of coordinate axis of the reference coordinate system and by a second cross product of a result of the first cross product and the orientation of the specified axis.

The present application provides a safety control system for an industrial robot and an industrial robot including the safety control system. In an embodiment, the safety control system includes a first safety controller connected to at least one core safety sensor outputting a core safety signal, to receive the core safety signal; and a second safety controller connected to at least one safety-related sensor outputting a safety-related signal, to receive the safety-related signal. In an embodiment, the first safety controller and the second safety controller are respectively connected to a safety actuating system.

Example implementations described herein can involve a plurality of data repositories involving a data repository configured to manage data versions of data sets corresponding to robot simulation versions; a code repository configured to manage code versions of executable code corresponding to the robot simulation versions; and a robot model repository configured to manage model versions of robot models corresponding to the robot simulation version. Responsive to a request of execution of a robot simulation, fetch, from the plurality of data repositories, corresponding one or more of the data sets having a data version from the data versions that corresponds to a robot simulation version of the robot simulation from the robot simulation versions, corresponding executable code, and a corresponding robot model.