A robot system comprising movable parts, a casing element, a force limiting sensor, a joint position sensor, and one or more processors, wherein the casing element comprises a vibration actuator. Multiple embodiments are introduced for the implementation of the casing element include haptic warning and proximity sensing. Furthermore, means to use the casing element to guide the robot and generate haptic effect by the vibration actuator to assist the user in a human-robot collaboration and/or guiding function are also disclosed.

An apparatus including at least one emitter configured to emit energy; at least one receiver configured to receive the emitted energy, where the at least one emitter is mounted on at least one of: a robot arm, an end effector of the robot arm, a substrate on the robot arm, or a substrate process module, where the at least one receiver is mounted on at least one of: the robot arm, the end effector of the robot arm, the substrate on the robot arm, or the substrate process module.

A method for managing elevator operation, a device for managing elevator operation, an elevator system and a computer-readable storage medium. The method for managing elevator operation includes: establishing a communication connection with at least one of robots movably arranged in a preset area; receiving data information from the robot, the data information including elevator service information generated by the robot based on input information related to an elevator visitor; and controlling the operation of the elevator and/or the operation of at least another one of the robots according to the received data information.

To load and unload a trailer, an autonomous mobile robot determines its location and the location of objects within the trailer relative to the trailer itself, rather than relative to a warehouse. The autonomous mobile robot determines its location the location of objects within the trailer relative to the trailer. The autonomous mobile robot navigates within the trailer and manipulates objects within the trailer from the trailer's reference frame. Additionally, the autonomous mobile robot uses a centerline heuristic to compute a path for itself within the trailer. A centerline heuristic evaluates nodes within the trailer based on how far away those nodes are from the centerline. If the nodes are further away from the centerline, they are assigned a higher cost. Thus, when the autonomous mobile robot computes a path, the path is more likely to stay near the centerline of the trailer rather than get closer to the sides.

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.

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 robot control method for controlling a robot including a robot arm that performs predetermined work on a work target object, the robot control method including a target-position setting step for setting, on simple shape data predicted from a plurality of projection shapes obtained by projecting the work target object from different directions, a plurality of target positions to which a control point of the robot arm in performing the predetermined work is moved and a driving step for driving the robot arm with force control based on the plurality of target positions set in the target-position setting step and force applied to the robot arm and performing the predetermined work.

Apparatuses, methods and systems for dynamically retrieving objects are disclosed herein. In one example, a retrieval apparatus is provided. The example retrieval apparatus comprises: at least one moveable arm mechanism configured to engage a surface of at least one of a plurality of objects; at least one sensing element configured to obtain sensor data describing locations and characteristics of the plurality of objects as the retrieval apparatus traverses an environment associated with the plurality of objects; and a controller component in electronic communication with the at least one arm mechanism and the at least one sensing element, wherein the controller component is configured to modify operational data based at least in part on the sensor data.

A dual mounted end-effector system mounted on a motive robot arm for preparing an object surface is described. The system includes a first tool configured to contact and prepare the object surface and a second tool configured to contact and prepare the object surface. The system also includes a force control. The force control is configured to align, in a first state, with the first tool in position to contact and prepare the object surface and, in a second state, with the second tool in a position to contact and prepare the object surface.

A system includes a transporter robot with a motion controller that changes the transporter robot's poses during transportation. A scanning device is fixed to the transporter robot. One or more processors are coupled to the transporter robot and the scanning device to generate a map of the surrounding environment. At a timepoint T1, when the transporter robot is stationary at a first location, a first pose of the transporter robot is captured. During transporting the scanning device, at a timepoint T2, the scanning device captures additional scan-data of a portion of the surrounding environment. In response, the motion controller provides a second pose of the transporter robot at T2. A compensation vector and a rotation for the scan-data are determined based on a difference between the first pose and the second pose. A revised scan-data is computed, and the revised scan-data is registered to generate the map.