A method for characterising the environment of a robot, the robot having a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, a datum carried by the arm, a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move and a plurality of position sensors for sensing the position of each of the joints, the method comprising: contacting the datum carried by the arm with a first datum on a second robot in the environment of the first robot, wherein the second robot has a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, and a plurality of drivers arranged to drive those joints to move; calculating in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors a distance between a reference location defined in a frame of reference local to the robot and the first datum; and controlling the drivers to reconfigure the first arm in dependence on at least the calculated distance.

Embodiments described herein generally relate to an apparatus and method of performing a robot calibration process within a substrate processing system. In one embodiment, a calibration device is used to calibrate a robot having an end effector. The calibration device includes a body, a first side and a second side opposite to the first side. The calibration device further includes a sensor disposed on the second side of the body. In some embodiments, the sensor covers the entire second side of the body. In this configuration, because the sensor covers the entire second side of the body of the calibration device, the calibration device can be utilized to sense the contact between the sensor and various differently configured chamber components found in different types of processing chambers or stations disposed within a processing system during a calibration process performed in each of the different processing chambers or stations.

A smart drilling system that includes a controller, a drilling machine with an optical marker, and a tracker station at a fixed spot of a construction site. The drilling machine includes an optical marker. The tracker station acquires the location of the drilling machine and its drill through tracking the optical marker. The drilling machine is moved into positions of multiple different work regions. The tracker station sequentially acquires the location of the multiple different work regions and transmits the acquired location information to the controller, such that, by using the transmitted locations, the controller converts drilling machine coordinates into desired perforation coordinates and recognizes an orientation of the drilling machine. The controller also recognizes a perforable point at a current position of the drilling machine through the location information of the drilling machine.

A method of operating a mobile construction robot includes placing an optical tracker on an architectural construction site and parking a driving platform of the robot on the site. An end effector of the robot is moved in first and second positions and the first and second positions of the end effector relative to the driving platform are measured. An optical marker mounted to the end effector is tracked in the first and second positions of the end effector with the optical tracker and the first and second positions of the optical marker relative to the optical tracker is measured with the optical tracker. A position and an orientation of the driving platform is determined based on the measured first and second position of the end effector relative to the driving platform and the measured first and second position of the optical marker relative to the optical tracker.

A method for characterising the environment of a robot, the robot having a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, a datum carried by the arm, a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move and a plurality of position sensors for sensing the position of each of the joints, the method comprising: contacting the datum carried by the arm with a first datum on a second robot in the environment of the first robot, wherein the second robot has a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, and a plurality of drivers arranged to drive those joints to move; calculating in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors a distance between a reference location defined in a frame of reference local to the robot and the first datum; and controlling the drivers to reconfigure the first arm in dependence on at least the calculated distance.

A method for characterising the environment of a robot, the robot having a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, a datum carried by the arm, a plurality of drivers arranged to drive the joints to move and a plurality of position sensors for sensing the position of each of the joints, the method comprising: contacting the datum carried by the arm with a first datum on a second robot in the environment of the first robot, wherein the second robot has a flexible arm having a plurality of joints, and a plurality of drivers arranged to drive those joints to move; calculating in dependence on the outputs of the position sensors a distance between a reference location defined in a frame of reference local to the robot and the first datum; and controlling the drivers to reconfigure the first arm in dependence on at least the calculated distance.

Embodiments described herein generally relate to an apparatus and method of performing a robot calibration process within a substrate processing system. In one embodiment, a calibration device is used to calibrate a robot having an end effector. The calibration device includes a body, a first side and a second side opposite to the first side. The calibration device further includes a sensor disposed on the second side of the body. In some embodiments, the sensor covers the entire second side of the body. In this configuration, because the sensor covers the entire second side of the body of the calibration device, the calibration device can be utilized to sense the contact between the sensor and various differently configured chamber components found in different types of processing chambers or stations disposed within a processing system during a calibration process performed in each of the different processing chambers or stations.

A method of operating a mobile construction robot includes placing an optical tracker on an architectural construction site and parking a driving platform of the robot on the site. An end effector of the robot is moved in first and second positions and the first and second positions of the end effector relative to the driving platform are measured. An optical marker mounted to the end effector is tracked in the first and second positions of the end effector with the optical tracker and the first and second positions of the optical marker relative to the optical tracker is measured with the optical tracker. A position and an orientation of the driving platform is determined based on the measured first and second position of the end effector relative to the driving platform and the measured first and second position of the optical marker relative to the optical tracker.

A robot zero-point calibration device includes an axial position recording unit configured to record positional data of each axis of a robot in each of a plurality of postures when a first positioning point and a second positioning point are made to coincide with each other, the first positioning point being disposed at a predetermined coordinate on a base coordinate system of the robot, and the second positioning point being disposed at a predetermined coordinate on a flange coordinate system of the robot. The device also includes a positional offset calculating unit configured to calculate an offset amount of a zero point of each axis of the robot from a true zero point of the axis based on a plurality of sets of the positional data stored in the axial position recording unit.

A robot diagnosing method includes: preparing: (1) a line sensor including a light emitter configured to emit a light ray, a light receiver configured to receive the light ray emitted from the light emitter, and a detecting portion configured to detect a position of the detected portion based on a light receiving state of the light receiver, the detected portion being inserted between the light emitter and the light receiver, and (2) a robot including a robot arm and a detected portion configured to move integrally with a wrist portion of the robot arm; detecting the position of the detected portion by the line sensor while linearly moving the wrist portion based on a command value from the robot control portion such that the wrist portion intersects with the light ray; and diagnosing a linearly moving property of the wrist portion based on the position of the detected portion.