An end effector including: a supporter configured to support a plate member; a support table provided at an end portion of the supporter via an universal joint and configured to support the plate member by making surface contact with the plate member; holding unit including a pair of holders configured to move linearly in a planar direction while the support table is interposed between the pair of holders in the planar direction, the holding unit being fixed to a base portion of the support table; and electric cylinders configured to change an inclination angle of the support table with respect to the supporter.

A robot hand includes holding members radially receiving a tape reel between flat-plate-shape main bodies facing each other, and an actuator configured to open and close the holding members. The holding members are openable and closable between a reel hold position and a tape pull-out position, the reel hold position is a position at which a distance between inner surfaces of the main bodies is greater than a distance between outer surfaces of pair of side plates of the tape reel, the tape pull-out position is a position at which a distance between outer surface of the main bodies is smaller than a distance between inner surfaces of the pair of side plates. The holding members include rail portions and cut-outs provided in the rail portions.

A work head including a head main body, multiple movable bodies held to be approachable to or separatable from each other by the head main body, and an air passage formed, being open between the multiple movable bodies, in the head main body, in which by gripping a holding tool configured to hold a component by approach of the multiple movable bodies, the holding tool communicates with the air passage and holds the component by supply of air to the holding tool via the air passage.

The invention relates to a charged particle microscope (CPM) that at least includes a sample holder, for holding a sample, and a manipulator device arranged for transferring a lamella created in said sample out of said sample, wherein said manipulator device comprises a first elongated manipulator member with a first outer end, and a second elongated manipulator member with a second outer end. The outer ends are movable for mechanically gripping and releasing said lamella. In embodiments, the elongated manipulator members comprise off-set parts that increase manoeuvrability, accessibility, and monitorability of the manipulator device during use.

An end effector including: a supporter configured to support a plate member; a support table provided at an end portion of the supporter via an universal joint and configured to support the plate member by making surface contact with the plate member; holding unit including a pair of holders configured to move linearly in a planar direction while the support table is interposed between the pair of holders in the planar direction, the holding unit being fixed to a base portion of the support table; and electric cylinders configured to change an inclination angle of the support table with respect to the supporter.

A lens positioning mechanism includes: a member holding unit that has a function of holding a second surface of a lens member having a first surface, which is a convex optical surface, and the second surface, which is an optical surface facing the first surface, and biasing the held lens member toward a side of the first surface; and an attitude control unit that regulates edge positions of a plurality of portions on the first surface of the lens member biased by the member holding unit to position the lens member in a predetermined attitude.

A banknote handling system includes an unlocking system. The unlocking system includes a camera, a first mechanical arm to which one or a plurality of keys are affixed, and a controller that determines a position of a keyhole based on an image from the camera, and controls the first arm to insert one of the one or the plurality of keys into the keyhole and turn the inserted key for unlocking. In many examples, the unlocking system is configured to unlock a banknote cashbox.

Provided is a gripping portion structure of a gravure plate-making robot in which the accurate gripping of an unprocessed plate-making roll and the positioning accuracy during transfer of the unprocessed plate-making roll to each processing device can be improved by causing a gravure plate-making robot to exhibit a high gripping force when gripping the unprocessed plate-making roll. The gripping portion structure of a gravure plate-making robot to be used in a fully automatic gravure plate-making processing system for manufacturing a gravure plate-making roll by gripping and transferring an unprocessed plate-making roll to each processing device includes: a pair of gripping plates to be mounted on an arm distal end of the gravure plate-making robot, the pair of gripping plates being freely spaced widely or narrowly from each other, and being configured to grip both end portions of the unprocessed plate-making roll; and a gripping surface forming member provided on each of the pair of gripping plates, the gripping surface forming member having a gripping surface that is curved so as to be recessed toward a center of the end portion of the unprocessed plate-making roll to be gripped and having a non-slip function.

A robot system includes two arms, each having a hand at an end thereof, and a controller to control operation of the arms. The hand has an openable and closable holder. The controller includes hand-number determining circuitry to determine the number of hands used to hold a holdable object based on the size of the holdable object, and hold controlling circuitry to control the holder of one of the hands to open so as to hold the holdable object by an inner surface of the holder, when the number of hands to be used is one, and control the holders of the two hands to close so as to hold the holdable object by outer surfaces of the two holders, when the number of hands to be used is two.

A hand includes a plurality of first gripping members which move relative to each other, a first drive unit configured to move the plurality of first gripping members in a first opening and closing direction to bring the plurality of first gripping members close to each other or separate them from each other, a plurality of second gripping members which move relative to each other independently from the plurality of first gripping members, a second drive unit configured to move the plurality of second gripping members in a second opening and closing direction to bring the plurality of second gripping members close to each other or separate them from each other, and a third drive unit configured to move the plurality of first gripping members relative to the plurality of second gripping members in a third direction intersecting the first and second opening and closing directions.