A technique shortens the time taken to adjust a protection area. An area setting device includes a setting unit that sets a protection area in at least a part of a surrounding environment of a robot to detect an entry of an object, an obtainer that obtains surrounding information about the robot, and a storage prestoring a set value for the protection area and the surrounding information associated with each other. The setting unit sets the protection area based on the set value read from the storage.

The present disclosure provides a conveyance system and the like capable of preferably conveying a conveyed object in accordance with a state of the conveyed object. The conveyance system includes a conveyance robot, a drive controller, which is a controller, an image data acquisition unit, and a setting unit. The conveyance robot conveys the conveyed object. The drive controller controls an operation of the conveyance robot. The image data acquisition unit acquires image data obtained by capturing images of the conveyed object. The setting unit sets an operation parameter of the conveyance robot in the drive controller based on the acquired image data.

The present technology relates to a control device, a control method, and a program capable of enabling predetermined motion while a gripped object is stabilized. A control device according to one aspect of the present technology is a device that detects a gripped state of an object gripped by a hand unit, and limits motion of a motion unit while the object is gripped by the hand unit, in accordance with a result of detection of the gripped state. The present technology can be applied to a device that controls a robot including a hand unit capable of gripping an object.

A control device (10) includes: an acquisition unit (12) that acquires outside-world information (11B) around a mobile body (100); and a control unit (13) that performs control to switch characteristics of a contact portion (130) capable of switching characteristics of a portion where a leg portion of the mobile body (100) comes into contact with an external environment on the basis of the outside-world information (11B) such that a contact sound between the contact portion (130) and the external environment changes.

A joint acceleration planning method, a redundant robot using the same, and a computer readable storage medium are provided. The method includes: obtaining an optimization objective function, a joint acceleration inequation constraint function and a joint acceleration equation constraint function corresponding to the optimization target from a quadratic programming function library, where the optimization objective function is an objective function obtained based on the upper and lower limits of the optimization target and a Euclidean distance algorithm; and obtaining a joint acceleration planning result by performing a quadratic optimization solving on a joint acceleration of each of the target joints of the robot at time k according to the end Cartesian space speed at time k+1, the joint parameter set of the target joints of the robot at time k, the sampling period, the optimization objective function, the joint acceleration inequation constraint function, and the joint acceleration equation constraint function.

According to one embodiment, a cargo-handling apparatus includes a holding unit, an image-capturing unit, a distance measurement sensor, and a control unit. The holding unit holds an article. The image-capturing unit captures an image of the article in a first direction. The distance measurement sensor measures a distance to the article in a second direction crossing the first direction. The control unit controls the holding unit. The control unit selects a first article to be held based on an imaging result by the image-capturing unit, calculates, based on a measurement result by the distance measurement sensor, a position of a first face of the first article and a position of a second face of the first article, and causes the holding unit to operate in accordance with the calculated position of the first face and the calculated position of the second face to hold the first article.

A system includes a robot with a robot arm having multiple joints and an end effector to carry a substrate. A processing device is to build, with respect to a joint space for the multiple joints and the end effector, a graph of reachable positions and sub-paths between the reachable positions, wherein the reachable positions and the sub-paths satisfy Cartesian limits within the joint space. The processing device is to determine, by executing a graph optimization algorithm on the graph, multiple paths, each made up of a group of the sub-paths and having one of a shortest distance or a lowest cost between a start point and an end point of the end effector. The processing device is to select a path, of the multiple paths, through the graph that minimizes a move time of the end effector between the start point and the end point.

A robot control method includes: obtaining force information associated with feet of the robot; calculating a zero moment point of a COM of a body of the robot based on the force information; updating a position trajectory of the robot according to the zero moment point of the COM of the body to obtain an updated position of the COM of the body; obtaining posture information of the robot; updating a posture trajectory of the robot according to the posture information to obtain an updated pose angle; performing inverse kinematics analysis on the updated position of the COM of the body and the updated pose angle to obtain joint angles of legs of the robot; and controlling the robot to move according to the joint angles.

There is provided a robot control apparatus that controls a vertical articulated robot and is suitable for direct teaching. In the apparatus, an axis setting section sets operation axes and control axes from among the axes subjected to angle control, when performing the direct teaching of changing a position of the arm tip, while retaining a posture thereof at a target posture. The operation axes can be dominant factors when determining the position of the arm tip and are allowed to freely move according to an external force, and the control axes can be dominant factors when determining the posture of the arm tip and are controlled by an angle control section. When performing the direct teaching, the angle control section receives an input of current angles of the operation axes and the target posture to calculate command angles of the respective control axes according to inverse kinematics calculation.

The present disclosure provides a humanoid robot and its control method and computer readable storage medium. The method includes: obtaining a current torque of a sole of the humanoid robot, an inclination angle of the sole, an inclination angle of a first joint of the humanoid robot, and an inclination angle of a second joint of the humanoid robot; calculating current feedforward angular velocities of motors of the first and second joints through the obtained information; calculating feedback angular velocities of the motors of the first and second joints; and obtaining inclination angles of the joints based on the feedforward angular velocities of the motors and the feedback angular velocities of the motors, and performing, through the motor of the second joint, a deviation control on the joints according to the inclination angles of the joints.