Provided is a robot control device capable of easily setting a robot operation speed which is safe for an operator. The robot control device is equipped with: a selection unit for selecting a location of a human body; an allowed speed storage unit for associating and storing the location of the human body and the allowed speed for the robot at said location; and a robot control unit for retrieving the allowed speed associated with the location selected by the selection unit from the allowed speed storage unit, and setting the smallest value for the retrieved allowed speed as the maximum speed for the robot.

A method of controlling a robot manipulator, the method including: providing a database containing body zones of a person, wherein each of the body zones is assigned a respective maximum permissible value of contact pressure value, determining a current or a future contact event of the robot manipulator involving the person, and determining a body zone of the person that is contacted, determining a reference position fixed relative to a body of the person, wherein the reference position indicates beginning of a spatial progression of depression of tissue of the person during the contact event with the person, and controlling the robot manipulator in an impedance-regulated manner, such that the reference position serves as a zero position of an artificial spring component of impedance regulation of the robot manipulator and a maximum permissible contact pressure is not exceeded as a limit value.

A method of operating a robot manipulator, the method including: specifying a maximum permissible force to be exerted on an object by the robot manipulator, specifying a target position of a reference point of the robot manipulator, determining a current position of the reference point, performing an impedance regulation, which determines a current reference force of an artificial spring component based on a spring stiffness and based on a difference between the current position and the target position of the reference point of the robot manipulator, and controlling the robot manipulator to execute an emergency control program if the current reference force exceeds the maximum permissible force.

A method for controlling a robot device (500) having a movable manipulator and/or effector (400), according to which method a speed and/or direction of movement of the manipulator and/or effector (400) is monitored and adjusted as appropriate, taking into consideration medical parameters for injury and robot dynamics is provided. A robot device (500) for implementing such a method and to a computer program product for executing such a method.

A human cooperation robot system includes: an external force detecting unit that detects an external force acting on a robot; a retreat operation commanding unit that commands a retreat operation for causing the robot to be moved in a direction such that the external force is decreased when the external force detected by the external force detecting unit is greater than a first threshold value; and an external force variation monitoring unit that stops the retreat operation when a variation width of the external force at a predetermined time after the retreat operation is commanded by the retreat operation commanding unit is smaller than a second threshold value.

The invention relates to a device and to a method for open-loop/closed-loop control of a robot manipulator (202), which comprises a sensor (203) for detecting an interaction with an environment. The proposed method is characterized in that a force-time curve of an external force (I) acting on the robot manipulator (202) is detected by the sensor (203), and, if the value of the detected force (II) is higher than a defined threshold value G1: (II)>G1, a safety mode of the robot manipulator (202) is activated, which open-loop controls a movement speed (III) and/or a movement direction (IV) depending on the detected force (I), wherein the movement speed (III) and/or the movement direction (IV) of the robot manipulator (202) is/are open-loop/closed-loop controlled depending on predetermined medical injury parameters before the safety mode is activated.

A jointed mechanism includes a passive pendulum system attached to and suspended from the multi-axis robot. The system includes one or more position sensors configured to measure a joint angle on the pendulum system, at least one arm, and an end-effector attached to a distal end of the pendulum system. A controller implements a method to selectively control motion of the robot in a plurality of control modes. The control modes include a Cooperative Mode and an Autonomous Mode. The controller is configured to detect contact with the end-effector when operating in the Autonomous Mode, and to automatically initiate a control action in response to the contact. The pendulum system may be a parallelogram arrangement.

Controlling a robot may be performed by calculating a desired velocity based on an operator contact force and a robot contact force, calculating a transformation matrix based on an operator pose, a robot pose, a robot trajectory, the operator contact force, and the robot contact force, calculating a least square solution to J.sub.f.sup.+{circumflex over (v)}.sub.f based on the desired velocity, calculating a scaling factor based on a current joint position of a joint of the robot, calculating a first trajectory based on the least square solution, the scaling factor, and the transformation matrix, calculating the robot trajectory, calculating a joint command based on the robot trajectory and the robot pose, and implementing the joint command.

A control device that outputs a command for a robot includes a machine learning device that learns a command for the robot. The machine learning device includes a state observation unit that observes a state of the robot and a state of a person present in a peripheral area of the robot, as state variables representing a current state of an environment, a determination data acquisition unit that acquires determination data representing an interference state between the robot and the person, and a learning unit that learns the state of the robot, the state of the person present in the peripheral area of the robot, and the command for the robot obtained by associating the state of the robot and the state of the person present in the peripheral area of the robot by using the state variables and the determination data.

Controlling a robot may be performed by calculating a desired velocity based on an operator contact force and a robot contact force, calculating a transformation matrix based on an operator pose, a robot pose, a robot trajectory, the operator contact force, and the robot contact force, calculating a least square solution to J.sub.f.sup.+{circumflex over (v)}.sub.f based on the desired velocity, calculating a scaling factor based on a current joint position of a joint of the robot, calculating a first trajectory based on the least square solution, the scaling factor, and the transformation matrix, calculating the robot trajectory, calculating a joint command based on the robot trajectory and the robot pose, and implementing the joint command.