An apparatus and a method for planning contact-interaction trajectories are provided. The apparatus is a robot that accepts contact interactions between the robot and the environment. The robot stores a dynamic model representing geometric, dynamic, and frictional properties of the robot and the environment, and a relaxed contact model to representing dynamic interactions between the robot and the object via virtual forces. The robot further determines, iteratively until a termination condition is met, a trajectory, associated control commands for controlling the robot, and virtual stiffness values by performing optimization reducing stiffness of the virtual force and minimizing a difference between the target pose of the object and a final pose of the object moved from the initial pose. Further, an actuator moves a robot arm of the robot according to the trajectory and the associated control commands.

An apparatus and a method for planning contact-interaction trajectories are provided. The apparatus is a robot that accepts contact interactions between the robot and the environment. The robot stores a dynamic model representing geometric, dynamic, and frictional properties of the robot and the environment, and a relaxed contact model to representing dynamic interactions between the robot and the object via virtual forces. The robot further determines, iteratively until a termination condition is met, a trajectory, associated control commands for controlling the robot, and virtual stiffness values by performing optimization reducing stiffness of the virtual force and minimizing a difference between the target pose of the object and a final pose of the object moved from the initial pose. Further, an actuator moves a robot arm of the robot according to the trajectory and the associated control commands.

A method and apparatus for selecting an initial point for industrial robot commissioning, the initial point being located above a touchscreen for industrial robot commissioning. The method including: calculating a nominal posture of a work object relative to the industrial robot by a nominal posture calculating module; and selecting an initial point according to the nominal posture by an initial point selecting module. The method and apparatus can automatically select the initial point so as to further increase automation of the commissioning process and reduce workloads.

Techniques for systems and methods that provide for utilizing a robotic system to type commands that correspond to voice commands using a keyboard of a device are described herein. In embodiments, an image of a device may be received from a camera. A keyboard region of the device may be determined based on a keyboard detection algorithm that uses the image. One or more characters in a portion of the image that corresponds to the keyboard region of the device may be detected based on a character detection algorithm. The one or more characters may be grouped into one or more groups based on the portion of the image. A character of a portion of character associated with a group may be edited based on an error detection algorithm.

A method and apparatus for selecting an initial point for industrial robot commissioning, the initial point being located above a touchscreen for industrial robot commissioning. The method including: calculating a nominal posture of a work object relative to the industrial robot by a nominal posture calculating module; and selecting an initial point according to the nominal posture by an initial point selecting module. The method and apparatus can automatically select the initial point so as to further increase automation of the commissioning process and reduce workloads.

An example method may include i) determining, by a robot having at least one foot, a representation of a coefficient of friction between the foot and a ground surface; ii) determining, by the robot, a representation of a gradient of the ground surface; iii) based on the determined representations of the coefficient of friction and the gradient, determining a threshold orientation for a target ground reaction force on the foot of the robot during a step; iv) determining the target ground reaction force, where the target ground reaction force comprises a magnitude and an orientation; v) determining an adjusted ground reaction force by adjusting the orientation of the target ground reaction force to be within the determined threshold orientation; and vi) causing the foot of the robot to apply a force on the ground surface equal to and opposing the adjusted ground reaction force during the step.

A method may include i) determining, by a robot having at least one foot, a representation of a coefficient of friction between the foot and a ground surface; ii) determining, by the robot, a representation of a gradient of the ground surface; iii) based on the determined representations of the coefficient of friction and the gradient, determining a threshold orientation for a target ground reaction force on the foot of the robot during a step; iv) determining the target ground reaction force, where the target ground reaction force comprises a magnitude and an orientation; v) determining an adjusted ground reaction force by adjusting the orientation of the target ground reaction force to be within the determined threshold orientation; and vi) causing the foot of the robot to apply a force on the ground surface equal to and opposing the adjusted ground reaction force during the step.