A method of controlling an industrial actuator, the method including receiving a manual input in the form of a displacement of an input element; in response to the manual input being a displacement of the input element from the neutral position in a first input direction, controlling the industrial actuator to move in a forward direction along a movement path and with a speed corresponding to a magnitude or a speed of the displacement from a neutral position; and in response to the manual input being a displacement of the input element from the neutral position in a second input direction, controlling the industrial actuator to move in a backward direction along the movement path and with a speed corresponding to a magnitude or a speed of the displacement from the neutral position.

There is provided a method and computer program product for programming a robot by manually operating it in gravity-compensation kinesthetic-guidance mode. More specifically there is provided method and computer program product that uses kinesthetic teaching as a demonstration input modality and does not require the installation or use of any external sensing or data-capturing modules. It requires a single user demonstration to extract a representation of the program, and presents the user with a series of easily-controllable parameters that allow them to modify or constrain the parameters of the extracted program representation of the task.

A processing path generating device including an intuitive path teaching device and a controller is provided. The intuitive path teaching device is provided for gripping and moving with respect to a workpiece to create a moving path. The intuitive path teaching device has a detecting portion for detecting a surface feature of the workpiece. The controller is connected to the intuitive path teaching device. The controller generates a processing path according to the moving path of the intuitive path teaching device and the surface feature of the workpiece.

A method of controlling an industrial actuator, the method including receiving a manual input in the form of a displacement of an input element; in response to the manual input being a displacement of the input element from the neutral position in a first input direction, controlling the industrial actuator to move in a forward direction along a movement path and with a speed corresponding to a magnitude or a speed of the displacement from a neutral position; and in response to the manual input being a displacement of the input element from the neutral position in a second input direction, controlling the industrial actuator to move in a backward direction along the movement path and with a speed corresponding to a magnitude or a speed of the displacement from the neutral position.

The invention decreases time required for a robot teaching operation, and reduces burden on an operator. A teaching operation assistance system includes teaching data including a target position/attitude of an end effector disposed at the tip of a mounting robot and robot control information corresponding to each target position/attitude; a laser tracker measuring the position/attitude of the end effector when the mounting robot has been operated in accordance with the teaching data; and a corrected teaching data creation unit for creating corrected teaching data, which is obtained by correcting the teaching data to bring the position/attitude measured by the laser tracker closer to the target position/attitude of the end effector in the teaching data. The laser tracker defines a coordinate system by detecting the positions of three coordinate system-defining reflectors disposed on a flat plate portion, and measures the position/attitude of the end effector in the coordinate system.

A processing path generating device including an intuitive path teaching device and a controller is provided. The intuitive path teaching device is provided for gripping and moving with respect to a workpiece to create a moving path. The intuitive path teaching device has a detecting portion for detecting a surface feature of the workpiece. The controller is connected to the intuitive path teaching device. The controller generates a processing path according to the moving path of the intuitive path teaching device and the surface feature of the workpiece.

A robot control device is provided with a display unit for displaying a three-dimensional image of a jog coordinate system and a robot, and an input unit including keys corresponding to coordinate axes of the jog coordinate system. The input unit is formed so that an operator operates an image on the display unit. A display control unit changes the image so that the direction of the jog coordinate system is fixed while the direction of the robot changes in accordance with the operation of the operator in the input unit. When the operator pushes the key, a manual control unit changes the position and orientation of the robot based on the direction of the jog coordinate system with respect to the robot in the image.

A robot control device is provided with a display unit for displaying a three-dimensional image of a jog coordinate system and a robot, and an input unit including keys corresponding to coordinate axes of the jog coordinate system. The input unit is formed so that an operator operates an image on the display unit. A display control unit changes the image so that the direction of the jog coordinate system is fixed while the direction of the robot changes in accordance with the operation of the operator in the input unit. When the operator pushes the key, a manual control unit changes the position and orientation of the robot based on the direction of the jog coordinate system with respect to the robot in the image.

There is provided a method and computer program product for programming a robot by manually operating it in gravity-compensation kinesthetic-guidance mode. More specifically there is provided method and computer program product that uses kinesthetic teaching as a demonstration input modality and does not require the installation or use of any external sensing or data-capturing modules. It requires a single user demonstration to extract a representation of the program, and presents the user with a series of easily-controllable parameters that allow them to modify or constrain the parameters of the extracted program representation of the task.

An operation information generating apparatus includes: a task data recording unit configured to record, as task data, information regarding an operation of a person from a start to an end of a task; an operation classifying unit configured to divide an overall operation from the start to the end of the task into a plurality of partial operations; and an operation combining unit configured to select a best partial operation for each partial operation from a plurality of samples of the task data for the same task, and generates data of an optimum operation of the entire task by combining the selected best partial operations.