A transfer hand of a material transport device for receiving a material from a counterpart device or delivering the material to the counterpart device includes a hand main body, a hand driving motor disposed on one side of the hand main body, a guide configured to move according to the hand driving motor, a pusher disposed on one side of the guide and configured to press the material, and a clamp disposed on the other side of the hand main body and configured to maintain a position of the material, wherein, when the hand driving motor operates, the guide is configured to move, and the pusher and the clamp are configured to interoperate.

A link actuation device includes: a parallel link mechanism including a proximal-side link hub, a distal-side link hub, and three or more link mechanisms coupling the distal-side link hub to the proximal-side link hub such that a posture of the distal-side link hub can be changed with respect to the proximal-side link hub; actuators for changing the posture; and a teaching unit including a conversion unit configured to calculate coordinates (Wt (=Xt, Yt, Zt)) of a distal-side link center of the distal-side link hub, which are expressed in orthogonal coordinates, from rotation angles (βn; n=1, 2, . . . ) of the end link members. A normal vector is applied to equations of a plane and of a sphere, and the equations are rearranged and used in the conversion unit.

An automated calibration system for the relation between a robot-arm coordinate frame and a profile-scanner coordinate frame includes a ball probe, a distance sensor module, a profile scanner and a control module. The ball probe is attached on a flange of a robot arm. The distance sensor module includes at least three distance sensors having respective axes sharing a common sensing plane and intersecting at a common point. The profile scanner is used for detecting a 2D cross-sectional profile of the ball probe. The control module is electrically connected with the distance sensor module, the profile scanner and the robot arm so as to control the robot arm to move the ball probe to obtain calibration information. In addition, an automated calibration method for the relation between the profile-scanner coordinate frame and the robot-arm coordinate frame is also provided.

The present disclosure discloses an automated calibration system and calibration method for a flexible robot actuator. The calibration system includes a support frame. A visual positioning system, a pressure measuring system and a pneumatic pressure control system are respectively installed on the support frame. The visual positioning system is configured to measure a relative displacement and an angle between two ends of the flexible actuator. The pneumatic pressure control system is configured to charge air into an actuating end of the flexible actuator and measure an input pneumatic pressure of the flexible actuator. The pressure measuring system includes a pressure gauge installed on the support frame through a vertical axis motor system, and the flexible actuator to be calibrated installed on the support frame through a horizontal axis motor system and a rotating motor system. The rotating motor system is installed on the support frame through the horizontal axis motor system, the actuating end of the flexible actuator is fixed on the rotating motor system, and a free end of the flexible actuator is in contact with a measuring end of the pressure gauge to carry out pressure measurement. The calibration system is high in accuracy and simple to use.

A robot control system includes: a robot on which a camera and a hand for gripping a first workpiece are mounted; a displacement generation mechanism disposed between a tip of the robot and the camera; a first control module configured to provide the robot with a control instruction for causing the first workpiece to approach a second workpiece; a vibration calculation module configured to calculate magnitude of vibration caused in the camera when the robot causes the first workpiece to approach the second workpiece; and a second control module configured to provide the displacement generation mechanism with a control instruction for compensating for the vibration calculated by the vibration calculation module.

A method and system for registering a 3D sensor with an autonomous manipulator is provided. The 3D sensor has a field of view and a sensor coordinate system. The autonomous manipulator is a vision-guided manipulator having a work envelope and a manipulator coordinate system. The method includes moving a registration target relative to the sensor in the field of view of the sensor in the work envelope to obtain a plurality of depth maps or images of the target. The depth maps or images are processed to obtain a plurality of extrinsic registration parameters between the manipulator and the sensor.

A system and method that automatically resolves conflicts among sensor information in a sensor fusion robot system. Such methods can accommodate converging ambiguous and divergent sensor information in a manner that can allow continued, and relatively accurate, robotic operations. The processes can include handling sensor conflict via sensor prioritization, including, but not limited, prioritization based on the particular stage or segment of the assembly operation when the conflict occurs, overriding sensor data that exceeds a threshold value, and/or prioritization based on evaluations of recent sensor performance, predictions, system configuration, and/or historical information. The processes can include responding to sensor conflicts through comparisons of the accuracy of workpiece location predictions from different sensors during different assembly stages in connection with arriving at a determination of which sensor(s) is providing accurate and reliable predictions.

Methods and apparatus related to generating a model for an object encountered by a robot in its environment, where the object is one that the robot is unable to recognize utilizing existing models associated with the robot. The model is generated based on vision sensor data that captures the object from multiple vantages and that is captured by a vision sensor associated with the robot, such as a vision sensor coupled to the robot. The model may be provided for use by the robot in detecting the object and/or for use in estimating the pose of the object.

An object can be moved via a robotic system with a combination of force and position control. The control system can include the object to be moved, the robotic system that moves the object, at least one force sensor, at least one position sensor, and a controller. A position control output, a force control output, and a hybrid weighting value can each be determined by the controller based on sensor data and then combined to determine an amount of position control and/or force control to be applied to move the object and/or modify an object in motion's trajectory.

A computing system and method for estimating friction and/or center of mass (CoM) are presented. The system may perform the method by selecting at least one of: (i) a first joint from among a plurality of joints, or (ii) a first arm segment from among a plurality of arm segments. The computing system further outputs a set of one or more movement commands for causing robot arm movement that includes relative movement between the first arm segment and a second arm segment via the first joint, and receiving a set of actuation data and a set of movement data associated with the first joint or the first arm segment. The computing system further determines, based on the set of actuation data and the set of movement data, at least one of: (i) a friction parameter estimate or (ii) a CoM estimate.