A robot system includes a robot, a vision sensor, a target position generation circuit, an estimation circuit, and a control circuit. The robot includes an end effector and is configured to work via the end effector on a workpiece which is disposed at a relative position and which is relatively movable with respect to the end effector. The vision sensor is configured to take an image of the workpiece. The target position generation circuit is configured to, based on the image, generate a target position of the end effector at every generation interval. The estimation circuit is configured to, at least based on relative position information related to the relative position, estimate a change amount in the relative position at every estimation interval. The control circuit is configured to control the robot to move the end effector based on the target position and the change amount.

The present disclosure provides a bioprinting system (100) for printing a liquid directly onto a subject. The bioprinting system (100) comprises a bioprinting assembly (102). Optionally, a robotic arm (104) and a control system (150) are provided. The bioprinting assembly (102) may be coupled to the robotic arm (104) to be positionable relative to the subject. The bioprinting assembly (102) is configured to dispense the liquid onto the subject and comprises a reservoir (120) for holding the liquid and a loading mechanism (134) to prime the reservoir (120) with the liquid directly prior to printing. The loading mechanism (134) has a one way inlet to permit liquid to be loaded into the reservoir (120) and prevent fluid from exiting the reservoir via the one way inlet. There is also provided associated methods.

The present invention makes an instruction for causing a transport robot to carry out transport easier for a person to understand. A transport system (1) is such that an address indicating a transport destination or a transport source is represented by a tree structure including a node indicating loading locations and a node indicating equipment to which the loading locations are provided, and when the address of the transport destination indicates equipment, a transport robot (20) sequentially loads objects to be transported in accordance with a preset loading priority order in loading locations where no objects to be transported have been loaded, from among the loading locations belonging to that equipment.

A robot assembly for safe operation in a manufacturing setting with humans including a sensor for detecting a human location and human movement is provided. A safety control module providing a boundary of a safety zone area that is associated with the human in a task oriented state that includes a largest possible area in which the human or an associated work object can extend when the human is standing in one location and performing the work task. The human movement and safety zone area location being used to develop a capture set area that includes at least one predictive future safety zone area location. Using the at least one predicted future safety zone area, establishing a travel path for moving the robot between locations without overlapping the capture set area.

There is provided a method of controlling a mobile manipulator for tracking a surface. The mobile manipulator includes a mobile base movable in an axial direction of the mobile manipulator and a manipulator supported on the mobile base having an end effector adjustable in a lateral direction of the mobile manipulator. The method includes detecting the surface from the mobile manipulator, including positions of the surface at points along the surface, determining a reference path for the end effector to track based on an offset from the surface detected, determining a tracking error in the reference path determined, and adjusting a position of the end effector in the lateral direction based on the tracking error to compensate for the tracking error in the reference path determined. There is also provided a corresponding mobile manipulator.

The present disclosure provides a method and system by which a precise amount of a viscous fluid sealing compound can be dispensed at required locations through computer vision-based observation of the fluid deposited, its rate and amount of deposition and location; and that the dispensed fluid may be accurately shaped through robotic or other special purpose mechanism motion. The invention enables instant quality inspection of the dispensing process in terms of the locations, amounts and shapes of newly created seals.

Provided are methods and apparatus for environment-adaptive robotic disinfecting. In an example, provided is a method that can include (i) creating, from digital images, a map of a structure; (ii) identifying a location of a robot in the structure; (iii) segmenting, using a machine learning-based classifying algorithm trained based on object affordance information, the digital images to identify potentially contaminated surfaces within the structure; (iv) creating a map of potentially contaminated surfaces within the structure; (v) calculating a trajectory of movement of the robot to move the robot to a location of a potentially contaminated surface in the potentially contaminated surfaces; and (vi) moving the robot along the trajectory of movement to position a directional decontaminant source adjacent to the potentially contaminated surface. Other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

A control method includes (a) measuring a misregistration index value relating to misregistration of a distal end portion of a manipulator by controlling the manipulator to perform a test operation, and (b) setting a limit value for an operation of the manipulator to prevent the misregistration index value from exceeding a predetermined threshold value.

A position and tracking system for radio-based localization in an operating room, includes a receiver, a mobile cart, a processor, and a memory coupled to the processor. The mobile cart includes a robotic arm and a transmitter in operable communication with the receiver. The memory has instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the system to receive, from the transmitter, a signal including a position of the mobile carts in a 3D space based on the signal communicated by the transmitter and determine a spatial pose of the mobile carts based on the received signal.

Provided is a robot including: a chassis; wheels; electric motors; a network card; sensors; a processor; and a tangible, non-transitory, machine readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuates operations including: capturing, with at least one exteroceptive sensor, a first image and a second image; determining, with the processor, an overlapping area of the first image and the second image by comparing the raw pixel intensity values of the first image to the raw pixel intensity values of the second image; combining, with the processor, the first image and the second image at the overlapping area to generate a digital spatial representation of the environment; and estimating, with the processor using a statistical ensemble of simulated positions of the robot, a corrected position of the robot to replace a last known position of the robot within the digital spatial representation of the environment.