The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the need, when a robot has been replaced with a new robot that is different in size, for an operator to directly re-input as operation program to make the robot operative. This robot control device comprises: a storage unit that stores an operation program; and a control unit that operates a robot is a robot coordinate system with three orthogonal axes. The control unit is provided with: a mobility range determination unit that determines whether there is, in the operation program, an axis, among the three orthogonal axes, that exceeds a mobility range of the robot; and a correction unit that, if it has been determined by the mobility range determination unit that there is an axis that exceeds the mobility range of the robot, rewrites the operation program so the axis is kept within the mobility range of the robot.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for avoiding singular configurations of a robot. A singular configuration of the robot is obtained. A location of an end effector of the robot when the robot is in the singular configuration is determined. For each of a plurality of voxels in a workcell, a distance from the voxel to the location of the end effector when the robot is in the singular configuration is computed. A negative potential gradient of the computed distance is computed. Control rules are generated, wherein the control rules, when followed by the robot, offset the trajectory of the robot according to the negative potential gradient.

According to some embodiments, a method includes: receiving an endpoint impedance matrix representing a desired stiffness or damping at the robot endpoint; reflecting the endpoint impedance matrix to an equivalent joint-space matrix associated with one or more of the robot joints, the equivalent joint-space matrix having a nullspace corresponding to near-zero-valued eigenvalues; generating a nullspace-filled impedance matrix from the equivalent joint-space matrix based in part on replacing the near-zero-valued eigenvalues with selected finite positive real values; generating a robot control law using the nullspace-filled impedance matrix; and using the robot control law to control the robot.

There is provided a robot control apparatus that controls a vertical articulated robot and is suitable for direct teaching. In the apparatus, an axis setting section sets operation axes and control axes from among the axes subjected to angle control, when performing the direct teaching of changing a position of the arm tip, while retaining a posture thereof at a target posture. The operation axes can be dominant factors when determining the position of the arm tip and are allowed to freely move according to an external force, and the control axes can be dominant factors when determining the posture of the arm tip and are controlled by an angle control section. When performing the direct teaching, the angle control section receives an input of current angles of the operation axes and the target posture to calculate command angles of the respective control axes according to inverse kinematics calculation.

Systems and a method for teaching a robot in reaching a given target location. The system and method include receiving inputs on a representation of a given target location to be reached by the robot. A check is made whether the given target location is singular. If the given target location is non-singular, the teaching of the robot is effected by associating with the given target location a selected configuration. If the given target is singular, the teaching of the robot is effected by associating with the given target location an assigned joint-values solution.

A robot controller including a control unit configured to cause a control point to move from a first position to a second position by basic joints and wrist joints, and a recording unit configured to record position information including the second position and rotation angles to which the wrist joints are rotated when the control point is positioned at the second position. In a case where posture of the wrist unit at the second position is not a singular point, the control unit causes the basic joints and the wrist joints to perform straight-line motion so as to move the control point along a straight line, and in a case where the posture of the wrist unit at the second position is a singular point, the control unit causes the wrist joints to perform each-joint controlling motion.

A teaching method of driving a robot arm by a drive unit based on a detection result of a force detection unit and storing a position and a posture of the driven robot arm in a memory unit, includes determining whether or not the posture of the robot arm is close to a singular posture, and, when determining that the posture of the robot arm is close to the singular posture, selecting and executing one escape posture from a plurality of escape posture candidates escaping from the posture close to the singular posture according to an external force detected by the force detection unit.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for avoiding singular configurations of a robot. A singular configuration of the robot is obtained. A location of an end effector of the robot when the robot is in the singular configuration is determined. For each of a plurality of voxels in a workcell, a distance from the voxel to the location of the end effector when the robot is in the singular configuration is computed. A negative potential gradient of the computed distance is computed. Control rules are generated, wherein the control rules, when followed by the robot, offset the trajectory of the robot according to the negative potential gradient.

A teaching method of driving a robot arm by a drive unit based on a detection result of a force detection unit and storing a position and a posture of the driven robot arm in a memory unit, includes determining whether or not the posture of the robot arm is close to a singular posture, and, when determining that the posture of the robot arm is close to the singular posture, selecting and executing one escape posture from a plurality of escape posture candidates escaping from the posture close to the singular posture according to an external force detected by the force detection unit.

According to some embodiments, a method includes: receiving an endpoint impedance matrix representing a desired stiffness or damping at the robot endpoint; reflecting the endpoint impedance matrix to an equivalent joint-space matrix associated with one or more of the robot joints, the equivalent joint-space matrix having a nullspace corresponding to near-zero-valued eigenvalues; generating a nullspace-filled impedance matrix from the equivalent joint-space matrix based in part on replacing the near-zero-valued eigenvalues with selected finite positive real values; generating a robot control law using the nullspace-filled impedance matrix; and using the robot control law to control the robot.