A process of deburring a workpiece comprising installing a workpiece onto a machine table proximate a robot, the workpiece having a surface, the robot having at least one force sensor and a spindle load sensor associated with a spindle coupled to a cutting tool, the robot having at least one joint configured to be actuated by a joint actuator; the robot being coupled to a controller; generating joint encoder signals with the controller, the joint encoder signals configured to direct the joint actuator; sensing contact forces between the cutting tool of the robot and the surface of the workpiece; determining a deburring path of the cutting tool to deburr the workpiece; and controlling the robotic deburring process by use of the joint encoder signals, a physics based model of burr size and material removal, a nominal trajectory and an actual trajectory of the cutting tool center point position.

A control device controls the arm such that a first contacting operation of setting an object to a first orientation and bringing the object into contact with an inserted object is performed, and an inserting operation of setting the object to a second orientation different from the first orientation and inserting the object by moving the object in a first direction is performed. Between the first contacting operation and the inserting operation, the control device performs a second contacting operation of bringing the object and the inserted object into contact in a portion different from a contact portion in the first contacting operation by performing force control such that a component of a target force in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction is set to a value greater than 0 based on an output from the force sensor at an orientation at which the object is tilted.

The present invention relates to a robot and method for estimating an orientation on the basis of a vanishing point in a low-luminance image, and the robot for estimating an orientation on the basis of a vanishing point in a low-luminance image according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a camera unit configured to capture an image of at least one of a forward area and an upward area of the robot and an image processor configured to extract line segments from a first image captured by the camera unit by applying histogram equalization and a rolling guidance filter to the first image, calculate a vanishing point on the basis of the line segments, and estimate a global angle of the robot corresponding to the vanishing point.

An active laser vision robust weld tracking system, a weld position detection method, and a robust weld tracking algorithm are disclosed in the present invention. The active laser vision robust weld tracking system comprises a laser source, a laser vision sensor, an image processing system, an industrial robot, and an electrical control system. A laser stripe associated with weld profile information is recognized by the laser vision sensor through projecting structured light onto the surface of a weld, the weld feature information is extracted using an image processing method, the position of the weld is detected from the central line of the laser stripe, and then the intelligent tracking of the weld is achieved with a variety of control methods.

A fluid exchanging system and method for use in exchanging fluids in insulating glass units (IGUs). The fluid exchanging system includes an articulating arm having a plurality of members and arms to allow movement about multiple axes defined by the articulating arm, an optical sensor system, coupled to the articulating arm, for identifying an opening in a spacer frame of an IGU, and a fluid exchanging apparatus releasably couplable to the articulating arm. The fluid exchanging apparatus also includes a fluid exchanging head for evacuating atmospheric air from the IGU and dispensing fluid into the IGU.

A system for process control of a composite fabrication process comprises an automated composite placement head, a vision system, and a computer system. The automated composite placement head is configured to lay down composite material. The vision system is connected to the automated composite placement head and configured to produce image data during an inspection of the composite material, wherein the inspection takes place at least one of during or after laying down the composite material. The computer system is configured to identify inconsistencies in the composite material visible within the image data, and make a number of metrology decisions based on the inconsistencies.

A non-destructive inspection apparatus includes a robotic device, an end effector coupled to the robotic device, and a controller coupled to the robotic device and the end effector. The controller is configured to determine, based on an amount of linear actuator extension of a sensor of the end effector and an amount of rotation of the sensor about a first axis of rotation and a second axis of rotation, a displacement of the sensor relative to a center point of the end effector surface so as to determine location information of the sensor, wherein sensor data for a location on a surface of a test article is sensed and correlated with the determined location information of the sensor. The robotic device controls movement of the end effector and is configured to determine, during the movement of the end effector, positional information for the center point of the end effector surface.

A system for performing interactions within a physical environment including a robot base that undergoes movement relative to the environment, a robot arm mounted to the robot base, the robot arm including an end effector mounted thereon and a tracking system that measures a robot base position indicative of a position of the robot base relative to the environment. A control system acquires an indication of an end effector destination, determines a reference robot base position, calculates an end effector path extending to the end effector destination and repeatedly determines a current robot base position using signals from the tracking system, calculates a correction based on the current robot base position, the correction being indicative of a path modification, and controls the robot arm in accordance with the correction to move the end effector towards the end effector destination.

A system for performing interactions within a physical environment including a robot base, a robot base actuator that moves the robot base relative to the environment, a robot arm mounted to the robot base, the robot arm including an end effector mounted thereon and a tracking system that measures a robot base position indicative of a position of the robot base relative to the environment. A control system acquires an indication of end effector destinations, determines a robot base position, calculates a robot base path extending from the robot base position in accordance with the end effector destinations to allow continuous movement of the robot base along the robot base path in accordance with a defined robot base path velocity profile and uses the robot base path to cause the robot base to be moved along the robot base path in accordance with the robot base path velocity profile.

A system for performing interactions within a physical environment including a robot base, a robot base actuator that moves the robot base relative to the environment, a robot arm mounted to the robot base, the robot arm including an end effector mounted thereon and a tracking system that measures a tracking target position indicative of a position of a target mounted on the robot base. A control system acquires an indication of an end effector destination, determines a tracking target position at least in part using signals from the tracking system, determines a virtual robot base position offset from the robot base and calculates a robot base path extending from the virtual robot base position to the end effector destination, using this to control the robot base actuator to cause the robot base to be moved along the robot base path.