A system for receiving and delivering packages to a building having a package receiving station, a delivery robot and a control system. The package receiving station having a display, an input device, a package receiving area, a robot loading area, at least one package manipulation devices, and a computing device, and the delivery robot capable of interacting with the package receiving station to receive packages to be delivered, such that the package receiving station is capable of receiving a package at the package receiving area, moving it to the robot loading area and loading the package onto the delivery robot and the control system is capable of notifying a recipient of the arrival of the package, coordinating a delivery time, and initiating a package delivery whereby the package is loaded onto the delivery robot and delivered to a location within the building and delivers the package.

A surgery supporting apparatus is capable of controlling a posture of a surgical instrument that is inserted into a body cavity and mechanically drivable. The apparatus includes a robot arm that can control the posture of the surgical instrument, which is attached to the robot arm via a gimbal mechanism.

A method for computing joint torques applied by actuators to perform a control of a movement of a robot arm having several degrees of freedom is provided. The method includes the act of providing, by a trajectory generator, trajectory vectors specifying a desired trajectory of the robot arm for each degree of freedom. The trajectory vectors are mapped to corresponding latent representation vectors that capture inherent properties of the robot arm using basis functions with trained parameters. The latent representation vectors are multiplied with trained core tensors to compute the joint torques for each degree of freedom.

Provided is a robot control device that makes it possible to perform high-level operations on a robot from an external device. The robot control device for controlling a robot, includes: a digital input/output interface for transmitting/receiving digital data to/from an external device; a program generation unit which generates an action command for the robot in accordance with command identification data included in digital data inputted via the digital input/output interface; and a program execution unit which executes the generated action command.

A robot controller includes a storage unit that stores load information including a mass and a center of gravity position of a load to be attached to a robot; a lead-through control unit that controls the robot comprising a sensor that detects an external force, based on the external force detected by the sensor and the load information stored in the storage unit; and a load suitability determining unit that determines whether or not the load information stored in the storage unit is suitable. In response to the load suitability determining unit determining that the load information has a possibility of being unsuitable, the lead-through control unit performs a restriction on a movement of the robot.

A device for acquiring a position and orientation of an end effector of a robot is provided. The robot has a robot arm with axes coupled to one another by joints. The end effector is arranged on an end of the robot arm, optical markers are arranged on first and second axes, and a number of joints between the end effector and the first axis is lower than a number of joints between the end effector and the second axis. An optical sensor acquires image data of the optical markers. A storage device stores a kinematic model of the robot arm. An evaluation device, in a first case, determines a first position of a first optical marker and the position and orientation of the end effector and, in a second case, a second position of a second optical marker and the position and orientation of the end effector.

A robot system comprising movable parts, a casing element, a force limiting sensor, a joint position sensor, and one or more processors, wherein the casing element comprises a vibration actuator. Multiple embodiments are introduced for the implementation of the casing element include haptic warning and proximity sensing. Furthermore, means to use the casing element to guide the robot and generate haptic effect by the vibration actuator to assist the user in a human-robot collaboration and/or guiding function are also disclosed.

A computerized method for estimating joint friction in a joint of a robotic wrist of an end effector. Sensor measurements of force or torque in a transmission that mechanically couples a robotic wrist to an actuator, are produced. Joint friction in a joint of the robotic wrist that is driven by the actuator is computed by applying the sensor measurements of force or torque to a closed form mathematical expression that relates transmission force or torque variables to a joint friction variable. A tracking error of the end effector is also computed, using a closed form mathematical expression that relates the joint friction variable to the tracking error. Other aspects are also described and claimed.

A robotic system for presenting a payload within a workspace includes a pair of serial robots configured to connect to the payload, a parallel robot coupled to a distal end of one of the serial robots such that the parallel robot is disposed between the distal end and the payload, a sensor situated within a kinematic chain extending between the distal end and the payload, and a robot control system (RCS). The sensor outputs a sensor signal indicative of a measured property of the payload. The RCS includes a coordinated motion controller configured to control the serial robots, and a corrective motion controller configured to control the parallel robot. Parallel robot control occurs in response to the sensor signal concurrently with control of the serial robots in order to thereby modify the property of the payload in real-time.

Provided is a process including: receiving inspection path information indicating a path for a robot to travel, and a plurality of locations along the path to inspect; determining, based on information received via a location sensor, that a distance between a location of the robot and a first location of the plurality of locations is greater than a threshold distance; in response, causing a refrigeration system of an optical gas imaging (OGI) camera to decrease cooling; moving along the path; in response to determining that the robot is at a first location of the plurality of locations, sending a second command to the sensor system, wherein the second command causes the refrigeration system of the OGI camera to increase cooling; causing the sensor system to record a first video with an OGI camera; and causing the sensor system to store the first video in memory.