A method of teaching in a holding force for holding an object by a gripper of a robot manipulator, the gripper having gripper jaws elastically deformable in a reversible manner, the method including: closing the gripper until the gripper jaws contact the object at contact points of the gripper jaws; externally applying a desired closing force at connection points of the gripper jaws to gripper jaw bearings such that the connection points move relative to the contact points, thereby elastically deforming the gripper jaws; actuating a gripper drive to maintain the current position of the connection points and terminating the closing force externally applied onto the connection points; and ascertaining and storing a value of a gripping force or a gripping torque, wherein the gripping force or the gripping torque is produced by elastic deformation of the gripper jaws and is exerted onto the connection points by the gripper jaws.

A device, a method and a program, by which a weight and a horizontal position of a gravity center of a load attached to a movable part of a robot can be estimated by a simple configuration. The device has: two torque sensors configured to detect a first torque applied to a first axis of a robot, and a second torque applied to a second axis of the robot; and a calculation section configured to calculate a weight and a horizontal position of a gravity center of a workpiece, by using two detection values of the torque sensors in one posture in which a hand attached to a movable part of the robot holds the workpiece.

A material handling clamp having a proportional relief valve delivering pressurized fluid to clamp arms that grasp a load, and having a controller configured to receive load geometry data and variably control the proportional relief valve to provide a target clamp force.

Provided is a control device of a robot hand. The robot hand includes a first finger and a second finger of which finger pad surfaces are opposed to each other. The control device includes: a target object determining unit that is configured to be able to determine a target object; a operation mode selector that is configured to be able to select an operation mode between a first operation mode and a second operation mode in accordance with the target object determined by the target object determining unit, the second operation mode in which contact areas of the finger pad surfaces of the first finger and the second finger with the target object are wider than in the first operation mode; and a hand controller that is configured to be able to control an operation of the robot hand upon gripping the target object in the operation mode selected by the operation mode selector.

The present application discloses a system, a method, and a computer system for handling items deemed to require special handling. The method includes (i) receiving via the communication interface an indication that a given item in a source of items requires special handling, and (ii) actuating an item diversion structure comprising or otherwise associated with the source of items to divert the given item to a location associated with alternative item handling.

A robot manipulating system includes a game terminal having a game computer, a game controller, and a display configured to display a virtual space, a robot configured to perform a work in a real space based on robot control data, and an information processing device configured to mediate between the game terminal and the robot. The information processing device supplies game data associated with a content of work to the game terminal, acquires game manipulation data including a history of an input of manipulation accepted by the game controller while a game program to which the game data is reflected is executed, converts the game manipulation data into the robot control data based on a given conversion rule, and supplies the robot control data to the robot.

Provided is a process that includes: obtaining low-sensitivity values mapped to respective locations within an area of a sensor array; determining differences between respective ones of the low-sensitivity values and respective ones of prior values for the locations, one example being tare values for the locations; obtaining a set of detection locations within the area of the sensor array based on differences exceeding a threshold; obtaining, after switching at least a portion of the sensor array to a high sensitivity mode, high sensitivity values mapped to respective locations within the area of the sensor array, each of the locations mapped to a respective second prior value, one example being a tare value in the high sensitivity mode; determining, for each location within the set of detected locations, a value based on the respective high sensitivity value and the respective second prior value; and outputting, the values and the locations.

A method is disclosed, including: providing a part having a target at which an assembly operation is to be performed by an industrial robot; determining the target position, by controlling the end effector of the robot to approach the target, detecting a contact between a location utensil attached to the end effector and the target and controlling the end effector of the robot at least by force control until the location utensil reaches a predetermined position relative to the target, and determining the target position as indicated by the absolute position of the location utensil when the location utensil is in said predetermined position relative to the target; registering the target position; and controlling the end effector of the robot to perform the assembly operation at the registered target position. An assembly unit or system is also disclosed.

A deformable sensor comprises an enclosure comprising a deformable membrane, the enclosure configured to be filled with a medium, and an imaging sensor, disposed within the enclosure, having a field of view configured to be directed toward a bottom surface of the deformable membrane. The imaging sensor is configured to capture an image of the deformable membrane. The deformable sensor is configured to determine depth values for a plurality of points on the deformable membrane based on the image captured by the imaging sensor and a trained neural network.

A substrate transfer device includes: a support part configured to support a substrate to be transferred and provided with a plurality of engagement portions which are engaged with an edge of the substrate on a first side of the substrate; a gripping part configured to move toward or away from the plurality of engagement portions and provided with a plurality of contact portions which come into contact with the edge of the substrate on a second side of the substrate when moving toward the plurality of engagement portions; a plurality of detection parts provided in the plurality of contact portions, respectively, and configured to detect distortion amounts of the plurality of contact portions; and a determination part configured to determine a gripping situation of the substrate based on detection results obtained by the plurality of detection parts.