A method for setting more precisely a position and/or an orientation of a device head in a measuring environment by a distance measuring device which has a number of M, M≥1, distance measuring sensors and which is connected to the device head. A control device is communicatively connected to the distance measuring device and an on-board sensor device. The position and/or the orientation of the device head is determined by the on-board sensor device and the position and/or the orientation of the device head determined by the on-board sensor device is set more precisely by the control device.

Systems and methods for detecting an escalator in a surrounding environment by a robotic apparatus are disclosed herein. According to at least one exemplary embodiment, an escalator may be determined based on an escalator detection parameter being met. The escalator detection parameter my further require detection of two side walls separated by a distance equal to a width of an escalator and detection of a depreciation in a floor equal to that observed between a stationary portion and a moving first step of an escalator.

A method for setting more precisely a position and/or an orientation of a device head in a measuring environment by a distance measuring device which has a number of M, M≥1, distance measuring sensors and which is connected to the device head. A control device is communicatively connected to the distance measuring device and an on-board sensor device. The position and/or the orientation of the device head is determined by the on-board sensor device and the position and/or the orientation of the device head determined by the on-board sensor device is set more precisely by the control device.

Methods and apparatuses for detecting one or more objects (e.g., dropped objects) by a robotic device are described. The method comprises receiving a distance-based point cloud including a plurality of points in three dimensions, filtering the distance-based point cloud to remove points from the plurality of points based on at least one known surface in an environment of the robotic device to produce a filtered distance-based point cloud, clustering points in the filtered distance-based point cloud to produce a set of point clusters, and detecting one or more objects based, at least in part, on the set of point clusters.

A robot program generation apparatus that selects a typical arrangement pattern of a robot system; selects elements to be arranged in the arrangement pattern; automatically generates a layout where the elements in a stationary state do not interfere with each other; automatically generates a robot program in accordance with task details corresponding to the arrangement pattern and with the layout; executes the robot program in a virtual environment and automatically modifies installation positions of the elements in the layout based on whether or not the robot in an operating state interfere with any other elements and on whether or not the robot can reach a workpiece; and corrects the robot program based on the installation positions.

The invention relates to a method for controlling a plurality of mobile driverless manipulator systems (10, 20), in particular driverless transport vehicles in a logistics environment (40) for manipulating objects (30). In the method, ambient information is provided by a central control device (50), and in one step, an object to be moved (30) in the surroundings is detected. The position and the pose of the detected object are used for updating the ambient information and are taken into account in the path planning of the mobile driverless manipulator systems (10, 20) in that, prior to a movement of the detected object (30), a first mobile driverless manipulator system (10) is used to check whether the detected object (30) is needed for the orientation of a second mobile driverless manipulator system (20).

Systems and methods for detecting an escalator in a surrounding environment by a robotic apparatus are disclosed herein. According to at least one exemplary embodiment, an escalator may be determined based on an escalator detection parameter being met. The escalator detection parameter my further require detection of two side walls separated by a distance equal to a width of an escalator and detection of a depreciation in a floor equal to that observed between a stationary portion and a moving first step of an escalator.

Provided is a control apparatus including: an assessment unit configured to assess whether a relevant element is represented by environment information acquired from a sensor or not; and an environment information setting unit configured to, in a case where the assessment unit has assessed that the relevant element is represented by the environment information, switch the environment information to acquired-in-advance environment information in which the relevant element is not included.

A safety system for safeguarding a machine is provided, said safety system having at least one safe sensor for producing safe data, wherein the safe sensor also produces non-safe data and/or a non-safe sensor for producing non-safe data is provided, wherein the safety system furthermore has a non-safe evaluation unit for processing the non-safe data and a safe evaluation unit that is configured to test the non-safe evaluation unit in that an evaluation result of the processing of the non-safe data is checked with reference to the safe data, The safe data have a lower accuracy and/or are more rarely available in comparison with the evaluation results.

Provided is a robot program generation apparatus including: means for selecting a typical arrangement pattern of a robot system; means for individually selecting elements to be arranged in the arrangement pattern; means for automatically generating a layout where the elements in a stationary state do not interfere with each other; means for automatically generating a robot program in accordance with task details corresponding to the arrangement pattern and with the layout; means for executing the robot program in a virtual environment and automatically modifying installation positions of the elements in the layout based on whether or not the robot in an operating state interfere with any other elements and on whether or not the robot can reach a workpiece; and means for correcting the robot program based on the installation positions.