A vision-based tactile measurement method is provided, performed by a computer device (e.g., a chip) connected to a tactile sensor, the tactile sensor including a sensing face and an image sensing component, and the sensing face being provided with a marking pattern. The method includes: obtaining an image sequence collected by the image sensing component of the sensing face, each image of the image sequence comprising one instance of the marking pattern; calculating a difference feature of the marking patterns in adjacent images of the image sequence; and processing the difference feature of the marking patterns using a feedforward neural network to obtain a tactile measurement result, a quantity of hidden layers in the feedforward neural network being less than a threshold.

The invention relates to a robot arm (2), having a plurality of joints (5) and a plurality of links (4), which each connect two adjacent joints (5) to one another, wherein at least one of said links (4) has a human-machine interface (6), comprising at least one display means (7, 7.2), which is designed to display at least one system state of the robot arm (2) and/or of a control device (3) connected in terms of control technology to the robot arm (2), and comprising at least one input means (8), which is designed to supply at least one manual input via the human-machine interface (6) to the robot arm (2) and/or to a control device (3) connected in terms of control technology to the robot arm (2), wherein the at least one input means (8) comprises a tactile sensor surface (8.1) arranged on an outer casing wall (M) of the link (4) and the at least one display means (7, 7.2) comprises a display surface (7.1) superimposed on the tactile sensor surface (8.1).

A robot system including a master device configured to receive a manipulating instruction from an operator and transmit the received manipulating instruction as a manipulating input signal, a plurality of slave robots configured to operate according to the manipulating input signal transmitted from the master device, a management control device configured to manage operations of the plurality of slave robots, respectively, and an output device configured to output information transmitted from the management control device. The management control device determines a priority of transmitting the manipulating input signal from the master device to the slave robot among the plurality of slave robots that are in a standby state of the manipulating input signal, and transmits information related to the determined priority to the output device. Thus, the operator is able to efficiently transmit the manipulating input signal to the plurality of slave robots through the master device.

A compound sensor that is capable of being used with robotics is provided such that the compound sensor includes a distance measurement unit and a pressure measurement unit. Further, a contact detection unit, which is dedicated to performing a detection when a measurement target contacts with a surface of the sensor is included.

Plurality of robot main bodies a remote control device including contactless action detecting part configured to detect contactless action including at least one given operation instructing action by operator, and control device communicably connected to remote control device and configured to control operations of plurality of robot main bodies, are provided. Control device includes memory part configured to store operational instruction content data defining operation mode of robot main body corresponding to the at least one operation instructing action, operational instruction content identifying module configured to identify operation mode of robot main body corresponding to one of operation instructing action detected by contactless action detecting part based on operational instruction content data, and motion controlling module configured to control operation of at least one given robot main body among plurality of robot main bodies based on operation mode identified by operational instruction content identifying module.

A robot system which is capable of reducing an operator's workload and easily correcting preset operation of a robot. The robot system includes a robot main body having a plurality of joints, a control device configured to control operation of the robot main body and an operating device including a teaching device configured to teach the control device one of positional information on the robot main body and angular information on the plurality of joints so as to execute an automatic operation of the robot main body and a manipulator configured to receive a manipulating instruction from an operator to manually operate the robot main body or correct the operation of the robot main body under the automatic operation.

Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to robotics and prosthetics. More specifically, some embodiments of the present technology relate to multi-modal fingertip sensors with proximity, contact, and for localization capabilities. Various embodiments of the present technology provide for a novel multi-modal tactile sensor which comprises an infrared proximity sensor and a barometric pressure sensor embedded in an elastomer layer. Signals from both of these sensors can be fused to measure proximity (0-10 mm), contact (0N), force (0-50N) and localize impact at five spatial locations and three angles of incidence. Gaussian processes in a regression setting can be used to obtain calibrated force measurements with an R-squared value of 0.99. Supervised machine learning approaches can be used to localize the position and direction of probing with classification accuracies of 96% and 89% respectively.

Aspects of various embodiments are directed to sensor apparatuses and methods thereof. An example sensor apparatus includes a capacitor and sensor circuitry. The capacitor includes a first substrate having a first electrode, a second substrate having a second electrode, and a dielectric layer. The dielectric layer has a plurality of apertures arranged in a pattern, the first and second electrode being separated by the dielectric layer and arranged with an overlapping area with respect to one another. The sensor circuitry is coupled to the capacitor and configured and arranged to detect normal and shear forces applied to the sensor apparatus based on changes in capacitance derived from changes in at least one of a distance between the first and second electrodes and the overlapping area of the first and second electrodes.

A surveillance system may comprise a control device and at least one robotic device. The control device is associated with a user and configured to request to connect to the at least one robotic device and in response to being connected, communicate a characteristic of the user to the at least one robotic device. The at least one robotic device comprises a platform to carry the user, and may be configured to in response to the request of the control device, verify identity of the control device of the user; in response to the identity of the control device of the user being verified, connect to the control device; define parameters of the at least one robotic device based on the characteristic of the user; and adjust the parameters of the at least one robotic device according to a riding pattern of the user.

A robot system which includes a manipulator configured to receive a manipulating instruction from an operator, a slave arm having a plurality of joints, and a control device configured to control operation of the slave arm. The control device is configured, while the slave arm is operating at a speed equal to or higher than a first given the threshold, even when an operational instruction value for correcting the operation of the slave arm is inputted from the manipulator during an automatic operation of the slave arm, to prevent the correction of the operation of the slave arm.