A handling method and apparatus for a stacked box can pull vertically upward and take out a stacked box having an open top surface. The handling method and apparatus gripes and moves the stacked box having an open top surface with the handling apparatus attached to a robot arm. The handling apparatus is moved to above a stacked uppermost box, a wedge member having a flat plate shape is inserted along outer surfaces of two opposite edges of an upper box, a claw provided to the wedge member is projected in a direction approaching the box and engaged with a lower surface of an outer flange of the box, and the box is lifted vertically upward and then a fall prevention hanger is driven on a lower side of the box to cause the box to be gripped by the handling apparatus and then moved by the robot arm.

A single robot of a two-lane bin packing system has an end of arm tool (EOAT) that interfaces with two infeed lines and two bins on an ongoing basis so that the robot can pick a group of bags from a first bag group staging area on the first infeed line while a group of bags is being formed in a second bag group staging area by the second infeed line. In addition, by interfacing with two separate bins, one bin can be filled while another, full bin is being replaced with an empty bin. The EOAT thus operates constantly. The bag groups can be formed in layers by discharging bags on a reciprocating shuttle of a pick table assembly.

The present invention relates to a device for handling an artifact of substantially cylindrical shape, comprising a bed (10) and supporting means fixed to the bed (10) and connected to corresponding actuators. The supporting means being positioned along at least an arc of circumference lying in a plane orthogonal to the development axis α of the bed (10) and comprising rolling elements (3) adapted to support and handle said artifact, at least one of them being motorized. Each rolling element (3) is connected to one of a plurality of corresponding actuators operatively connected to each other and adapted to regulate a movement of the rolling elements (3) in response to forces exerted by the artifact on each rolling element (3), in such a way as to distribute said forces uniformly on each rolling element (3) to position one or more resultants of the forces in one or more points.

A robot control unit for a substrate conveying robot raises a hand from a first lower position below a first target position at which the hand picks up a substrate to a first upper position above the first target position, and displaces at least one of a plurality of joints in one direction, in a first interval from the first lower position to a first intermediate position between the first lower position and the first target position.

An autonomous tray handling robotic system is disclosed. In various embodiments, data indicating a set of output stacks to be assembled is stored, each output stack including an associated set of trays each of a corresponding tray type. Operation of one or more robots is controlled, each robot being configured to grasp, move, and place one or more trays at a time, according to a plan, to iteratively pick trays from source stacks of trays and assemble the set of output stacks, including by building each output stack by successively placing on the output stack trays picked from one or more corresponding source stacks. Each of the robots comprises a robotic arm and a tray handling end effector configured to grasp, move, and place one or more trays without assistance from another robot.

The present disclosure relates to a method for retrieving medication packages from a pharmacy order-picking device. In modern pharmacy order-picking devices, medication packages are stored for space optimization, which can cause a number of heavy packages to be stored on one shelf, causing the shelf to bend, which may prevent retrieval. In the method according to the disclosure, an operating device (20) is displaced in a displacement position to a predetermined shelf position, at least one medication package (30) on a shelf (11) belonging to the shelf position is moved with a gripping device (22) in the direction of a support (21) and it is then checked whether the at least one medication package (30) has moved fully onto the support (21). If the check has a negative outcome, an edge (11″, 11′″) of the shelf (11) on which the at least one medication package is stored is detected with a sensor (23) of the operating device (20) and said operating device (20) is displaced to a corresponding shelf position, the gripping device (22) having been brought into the displacement position before displacement.

A raising/lowering conveyance apparatus has at least two sets of container holders operable to be raised/lowered in conjunction with each other, and to be freely movable closer to or away from containers in the back-and-forth horizontal direction. A sensor operable to detect the upper end height of the transferred containers which have been transferred and raised is attached to a position near the lower end of each container holder, to determine abnormality in posture of the transferred containers through a comparison operation between the value of the upper end height of the transferred containers detected by the sensor and the normal value of the upper end height of the transferred containers calculated on the basis of the height of the container being handled.

A stowage device is equipped with a transport device that transports a plurality of types of objects in a random sequence, and a control device that sets a position of an object inside a containment area. The control device includes a complete pattern selection unit that selects a complete pattern in which an object transported by the transport device can be stowed on the basis of the type of the object and information on an object currently placed in the containment area. The control device includes a position determination unit that determines a position of an object inside the containment area on the basis of the complete pattern.

An opening-closing control device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is a device that controls opening and closing of a plurality of doors of an accommodating portion when a robot executes a task of loading or unloading an object to and from the accommodating portion. The opening-closing control device includes a door opening information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating a door to be opened in order to execute the task; and a control unit that controls, based the on the information indicating the door to be opened in order to execute the task, a lock unit that is arranged corresponding to each of the plurality of doors and that is configured to restrict a door other than the door to be opened in order to execute the task in a closed state.

Embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for adjusting a grip on an object held by a gripper of a robotic system. The gripper manipulates the object to bring a portion of the object into contact with a supporting surface underlying the object, and the gripper undergoes one or more displacements relative the object to apply frictional pushes to the object while the object is held stationary against the supporting surface. The gripper maintains contact with the object during the one or more displacements, and the one or more displacements are at least partially directed towards the supporting surface. According to some aspects, such manipulation strategies provide a functionality of fixturing an object for regripping without requiring customized fixture hardware.