A method and apparatus for dispensing and retrieving products is provided. A system may include: a grasping head; first and second grasping members, each grasping member comprising: a top member; a post member; and first and second grasping fingers, where the first and second grasping fingers extend from the post member and are spaced apart from the top member by a predetermined distance, where the first and second grasping members are connected to the grasping head, where at least one of the first and second grasping members is movably connected to the grasping head, where the at least one of the first and second grasping members is movable relative to the other of the first and second grasping members.

A gantry drive system includes: a first motor configured to drive a driving object along a first axis; a second motor configured to drive the driving object along a second axis parallel with the first axis; and a motor control system configured to control the first and second motors. The motor control system includes a mode switch that performs a switching between a first control mode in which a position of the driving object on each of the first and second axes is individually controlled while reducing an inter-axis positional deviation between the first and second axes, and a second control mode in which a rotational state of the driving object is controlled while controlling a position of the driving object, based on detected positions of the driving object on the first and second axes.

Disclosed embodiments include a gantry assembly that has (i) a moveable carriage with a laser head affixed thereto and (ii) two sides (moveable subassemblies) that are connected by a joining subassembly. One side of the gantry has two motors: (i) a first motor (x-axis motor) that moves the carriage along a first axis (x-axis) between the two sides of the gantry, and (ii) a second motor (y-axis motor) that moves the gantry along a second axis (y-axis) perpendicular to the first axis. In some embodiments, the gantry assembly also includes a drive shaft (or alternative drive mechanism) operated by the second motor (y-axis motor) to facilitate movement of the two sides of the gantry together along the second axis (y-axis).

In variants, a method for robot control can include: receiving sensor data of a scene, modeling the physical objects within the scene, determining a set of potential grasp configurations for grasping a physical object within the scene, determining a reach behavior based on the potential grasp configuration, determining a trajectory for the reach behavior, and grasping the object using the trajectory.

A position of a movable part of a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is determined repeatedly. A position value of the part is measured at a reference location. First and second acceleration values are measured at a first and second measuring location. The second measuring location is closer to a measuring sensor than the first measuring location and the first measuring location is closer to the reference location than the second measuring location. A target and/or actual state value is supplied to a model of the CMM. Estimators are modelled. The model is supplied with a position deviation based on the estimator of the position deviation and deviation based on the estimator of the deviation and the deviation of the measured first and second values. The position of the part is determined from the measured position value in relation to the reference location based on the estimator of the position deviation.

A tactile and/or optical distance sensor includes a housing, which has at least one elongate portion, a measurement arm, which is arranged in the housing, at least partially extends through the elongate portion and has a tactile and/or an optical probe element at one end, a transducer, which is configured to capture a position of the tactile probe element or a signal of the optical probe element and to generate associated probe element measurement signals, and an advance unit, with which the housing is linearly dis-placeable along an advance direction. A strain sensor is located in the region of the measurement arm extending through the elongate portion or at an adjacent region directly adjoining said region. In addition, a system for measuring the roughness of a surface of a workpiece and a method for calibrating a distance sensor or a system are provided.

A movable gantry system is described. In an example, the movable gantry system is configured to interface with jigs of different types or sizes and/or with different positions of a same jig and/or to perform operations on different parts mounted in such jigs. To do so, the movable gantry system includes an end effector, a gantry, and a computing system. The end effector is mounted within the gantry and provides at least rotational movement to perform operations on a part. The gantry is movable and interfaces with a jig holding the part. Further, the gantry provides translational movement to the end effector. The computing system identifies the gantry and the part and controls the gantry and the end effector, thereby facilitating the operations on the part.

An apparatus and a method to locate a three dimensional object and to execute a predetermined operation on said object, such as playing carom is disclosed. The apparatus includes a robot (200) having an end effect or (202) mounted on a gantry frame. The apparatus further includes a plurality of imaging sensors mounted at predetermined positions in said gantry frame. A data processing system (computer) (214) is provided in communication with said robot (200) and said imaging sensors. Further a controller 216 connected to said data processing system (214) to regulate the functions of said data processing system. The end-effect or (202) provided in the robot (200) consists of at least two degrees of freedom, one for rotational (302) and other for transmitting force (306a).

A method and apparatus for dispensing and retrieving products is provided. A system may include: a grasping head; first and second grasping members, each grasping member comprising: a top member; a post member; and first and second grasping fingers, where the first and second grasping fingers extend from the post member and are spaced apart from the top member by a predetermined distance, where the first and second grasping members are connected to the grasping head, where at least one of the first and second grasping members is movably connected to the grasping head, where the at least one of the first and second grasping members is movable relative to the other of the first and second grasping members.

An assembling apparatus that is provided with transfer mechanisms in three orthogonal directions and is capable of assembling plural parts with a high degree of accuracy using a holding device attached to one of the transfer mechanisms is provided. The assembling apparatus includes an x-axis transfer mechanism 101; a y-axis transfer mechanism 103; a z-axis transfer mechanism 105; a holding device 107 for holding a work piece, the holding device being attached to the z-axis transfer mechanism such that the holding device is movable in the z-axis direction; a base 1000 having a surface parallel to the x-axis and the y-axis; a first camera 201 attached to the z-axis transfer mechanism such that the optical axis is in the z-axis direction; and a second camera 203 attached to the base such that the optical axis is in the z-axis direction.