Surgical kit inspection systems and methods are provided for inspecting surgical kits having parts of different types. The surgical kit inspection system comprises a vision unit including a first camera unit and a second camera unit to capture images of parts of a first type and a second type in each kit and to capture images of loose parts from each kit that are placed on a light surface. A robot supports the vision unit to move the first and second camera units relative to the parts in each surgical kit. One or more controllers obtain unique inspection instructions for each of the surgical kits to control inspection of each of the surgical kits and control movement of the robot and the vision unit accordingly to provide output indicating inspection results for each of the surgical kits.

There is a demand for further improving efficiency of a task of replacing the reduction gear of the robot. A jig configured to support a reduction gear connecting a first element and a second element of a robot to be enabled to perform a speed reduction operation on each other, when the second element is separated from the first element includes a fixed portion removably mounted to the first element or the second element, a movable portion rotationally or translationally movably mounted to the fixed portion, and a support mounted to the movable portion and configured to suspend and support the reduction gear in a gravity direction.

A robot system includes a motor provided at a joint, a regenerative resistor that consumes a back electromotive force generated by rotation of the motor as heat, and a controller configured or programmed to predict a life of the regenerative resistor based on a period of time during which the regenerative resistor is consuming heat.

A robotic system includes a robotic manipulator having one or more contact pads. The contact pads have features therein that are detectable to determine or measure a degree to which they have worn down. Such features may include fluorescent materials, colorful materials, and/or RFID tags. A robotic environment may include one or more sensors to detect such features, and may be configured to generate a signal indicating that one or more contact pads are in need of maintenance.

In order to alleviate a user's burden of maintenance, the present invention calculates an actual lifetime of a cable, which is the intrinsic lifetime of the cable, and extends cable replacement cycles. Provided is a lifetime prediction device for a cable used in an industrial machine, the lifetime prediction device being provided with: a motion amount analysis unit that analyzes a motion amount of a motion axis of the industrial machine on the basis of a motion program for operating the industrial machine; and a lifetime calculation unit that calculates a predicted value of a lifetime of the cable by applying to the motion amount a relational expression between the motion amount and the lifetime of the cable based on the Eyring model.

A robot including a robot mechanism including joints and drive units, a control unit controlling the drive units so that an inspection operation to inspect one target drive unit among the drive units is executed by the robot mechanism, and a notification unit notifying maintenance information of the target drive unit based on a current value of a motor of the target drive unit during the inspection operation, or on information associated with the current value, and the inspection operation includes transmitting, to the motor of the target drive unit, control command to rotate a joint as much as a predetermined rotation angle, and thereby moving a tip of the robot mechanism or a tool at the tip, close to an object at a predetermined position from a predetermined start position, to press the object, and separating the tip of the robot mechanism or the tool away from the object.

Surgical kit inspection systems and methods are provided for inspecting surgical kits having parts of different types. The surgical kit inspection system comprises a vision unit including a first camera unit and a second camera unit to capture images of parts of a first type and a second type in each kit and to capture images of loose parts from each kit that are placed on a light surface. A robot supports the vision unit to move the first and second camera units relative to the parts in each surgical kit. One or more controllers obtain unique inspection instructions for each of the surgical kits to control inspection of each of the surgical kits and control movement of the robot and the vision unit accordingly to provide output indicating inspection results for each of the surgical kits.

A remaining life of a robot body is precisely estimated. A robot control apparatus 300 includes: a drive control unit 305 that controls drive of a robot body 200; a detection unit 306 that detects a feature amount quantitatively indicating a deterioration degree of the robot body 200 that is deteriorated over time as the robot body 200 is driven; a determination unit 303 that determinates presence/absence of a sign of malfunction of the robot body 200 based on the feature amount; and an estimation unit 304 that estimates a remaining life of the robot body 200 when presence of a sign of malfunction of the robot body 200 is determined.

Disclosed are a method and a system for charging a robot. A method for charging a robot according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes monitoring a battery level of a first robot which is providing a service, determining a charging robot for charging the first robot, from a plurality of second robots, when a battery level of the first robot falls below a first threshold level, and transmitting an instruction to move to a target position to the determined charging robot, in which determining the charging robot comprises determining the charging robot based at least partly on distances between the first robot and the second robots and battery levels of the second robots. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by executing an artificial intelligence algorithm and/or a machine learning algorithm in a 5G environment connected for Internet of Things.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for performing automated safety procedures for a robot. One of the methods includes receiving, by a robotic control system for a robot, a request to execute an automated safety procedure by a safety control subsystem for the robot. Each step of the automated safety procedure is iterated until an end of the automated safety procedure is reached, including if a step requires a new safety configuration, a respective safety configuration for the step is obtained and activated before performing one or more automatic actions for the step.