A control system includes a control apparatus and a plurality of robots. The control apparatus includes a function acquisition unit that acquires a function, a function form conversion unit that converts the function into a distributed calculable form, and a variable conversion unit that sets, based on the function which form is converted, variables to be stored by each of the robots and a process corresponding to the variables, to the robot. Each of the plurality of robots a consensus control means that updates a variable value stored by the robot itself based on the set variable while sending and receiving variable values among other communicable robots, and a function value inference means that infers a function value from the variable based on the set process.

The present disclosure relates to a robot master control system. The robot master control system includes: a master controller, configured to control at least one dual-robot control system, where each of the least one dual-robot control system includes a first robot, a second robot, and a sub-controller controlling the first robot and the second robot, and the sub-controller is controlled by the master controller. In the present disclosure, multiple robots may be coordinated and comprehensively controlled to grab and move objects. Compared with a single robot, the efficiency of the multiple robots operation is greatly improved. In addition, each dual-robot control system may be individually configured, thereby improving the work efficiency of coordinated work of dual-robot control systems.

An AAMP system includes a plurality of AAMP system stations disposed in an environment and configured to perform one or more AAMP processing routines, and a plurality of robots configured to autonomously travel within the environment, where one or more robots from among the plurality of robots include an auxiliary AAMP processing station configured to perform one or more auxiliary AAMP processing routines. The AAMP system includes a controller configured to select an AAMP system station from among the plurality of AAMP system stations to perform the one or more AAMP processing routines based on AAMP system operation data and select a robot from among the plurality of robots to initiate the one or more AAMP processing routines at the selected AAMP system station based on a digital model of the environment and robot operation data, where the robot operation data includes an auxiliary processing state.

In a robot system including robots, lower-level control units respectively coupled to the robots and controlling one of the robots, and an upper-level control unit coupled to the lower-level control units and transmitting command information for control of the robots to the lower-level control units, a method of controlling the robots executed by the upper-level control unit is provided. The upper-level control unit includes a processor having a plurality of processor cores. Part of the processor cores of the plurality of processor cores are isolated from the other processor cores. Communication tasks with the lower-level control units are assigned to the isolated part of the processor cores. The isolated part of the processor cores are controlled to execute the communication tasks with the lower-level control units and the command information is transmitted to the lower-level control units. The isolation of the isolated part of the processor cores is released.

An automated additive manufacturing production (AAMP) system includes one or more AAMP system stations disposed in an environment and configured to perform one or more AAMP routines, where each AAMP system station from among the one or more AAMP system stations includes a door. The AAMP system includes one or more robots configured to autonomously travel within the environment and a controller comprising an application program interface (API) configured to communicably couple the one or more robots and the one or more AAMP system stations, where the one or more robots are configured to command, via the API, the one or more AAMP system stations to selectively position the door and initiate the one or more AAMP routines.

A method for characterising the environment of a robot, the robot having a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, a datum carried by the arm, a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move and a plurality of position sensors for sensing the position of each of the joints, the method comprising: contacting the datum carried by the arm with a first datum on a second robot in the environment of the first robot, wherein the second robot has a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, and a plurality of drivers arranged to drive those joints to move; calculating in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors a distance between a reference location defined in a frame of reference local to the robot and the first datum; and controlling the drivers to reconfigure the first arm in dependence on at least the calculated distance.

A cooking system includes a grill, a first arm assembly and a second arm assembly. An electronic hardware controller is in signal communication with the at least one grill, the first arm assembly and the second arm assembly. The controller operates the first arm assembly to transfer a prepared product to the grill, and operates the second arm assembly to transfer a cooked product from the grill.

The present disclosure provides a traffic cones and traffic cone lanterns placement and collection system and a method. The system comprises: a vehicle body, on which a loading bay and a storage bay are disposed; an on-vehicle first robot arm, which is used for moving a traffic cone of the loading bay and a traffic cone lantern thereon off the vehicle body, or collect them from outside of the vehicle to the loading bay; an on-vehicle second robot arm, which is used for moving a traffic cone and a traffic cone lantern to and from the loading bay for storage management; at least one object recognition sensor, which is used for capturing the information of a road traffic marking and the information of the objects on the road; and a processing unit, which is used for working out the position of the road traffic marking and the position information of the objects on the road, and controlling the robot arms' motion accordingly to move the traffic cone of the loading bay and the traffic cone lantern thereon outside of the vehicle body, or collect them from outside of the vehicle. The disclosure enables both traffic cones and traffic cone lanterns automatic placement work or automatic collection work.

In an embodiment, a method during execution of a motion plan by a robotic arm includes determining a voice command from speech of a user said during the execution of the motion plan, determining a modification of the motion plan based on the voice command from the speech of the user, and executing the modification of the motion plan by the robotic arm.

An acquisition section 42 acquires a pose at a clock time ti and a pose at a clock time tj for each of plural robots, and acquires structural information. Based on structural information a computation section 44 computes positions of the prescribed part for each of the robots at the clock times ti, tj and at a midway clock times tc. A possibility determination section determines a possibility of interference, based on any overlap between added-margin regions resulting from addition of a prescribed margin to a circumscribing shape containing positions of the prescribed part at the clock times ti, tj, and tc for each of the robots. In cases in which there is a possibility of interference, an end determination section 48 sets tc so as to be a new ti or a new tj, and causes processing of the computation section 44 and the possibility determination section 46 to be executed repeatedly until a spacing between the prescribed parts satisfies an end condition. When determined that the end condition has been satisfied, an interference determination section 50 determines whether or not there is interference between the prescribed parts between the robots at any of the positions at ti, tc, and tj.