A robot including an arm, a tool attached to the arm, a measurement fixture to be attached to a tip portion of the tool detachably, and a controller that recognizes a reference coordinate system used to control the arm, and that controls the arm. The controller stores data indicating a positional relationship between a tip of the tool and the measurement fixture or data to be used to calculate the positional relationship, and the controller calculates positional coordinates of the tip of the tool in the reference coordinate system based on position data of the measurement fixture and the positional relationship, where the position data is detected by using acquired image data from a visual sensor whose position is associated with the reference coordinate system.

A method of calibrating an impedance control of a robot manipulator, the method including: deflecting a reference point of the robot manipulator from a zero position to a deflected position, wherein the robot manipulator applies a counterforce dependent on a spring constant of the impedance control and on a first determined deflection, wherein the first determined deflection is determined based on joint angles detected by joint angle sensors of the robot manipulator; detecting a second determined deflection by an external position measuring unit; and adapting the spring constant of the impedance control in such a way that the counterforce applied by the robot manipulator corresponds to a predetermined counterforce of the robot manipulator based on the second determined deflection.

One embodiment can provide a robotic system. The robotic system can include a robotic arm comprising an end-effector, a robotic controller configured to control movements of the robotic arm, and a dual-resolution computer-vision system. The dual-resolution computer-vision system can include a low-resolution three-dimensional (3D) camera module and a high-resolution 3D camera module. The low-resolution 3D camera module and the high-resolution 3D camera module can be arranged in such a way that a viewing region of the high-resolution 3D camera module is located inside a viewing region of the low-resolution 3D camera module, thereby allowing the dual-resolution computer-vision system to provide 3D visual information associated with the end-effector in two different resolutions when at least a portion of the end-effector enters the viewing region of the high-resolution camera module.

A robot may include a manipulator arm including a plurality of links and one or more grippers configured to perform a gripper work. A camera may be positioned at an end of the manipulator arm to provide a direct line of sight to the grippers and observe the gripper work from above the grippers.

A control system for a hand that is connectable to a robot arm and has a tip of which shape is deformable, includes an image acquisition unit that acquires an image of the hand, and a controller that detects at least one specific deformed shape of the hand based on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit, and performs a control on at least one of the hand and the robot arm according to the at least one specific deformed shape detected.

A grasping system includes a robotic arm having a gripper. A fixed sensor monitors a grasp area and an onboard sensor moves with the gripper also monitors the area. A controller receives information indicative of a position of an object to be grasped and operates the robotic arm to bring the gripper into a grasp position adjacent the object based on information provided by the fixed sensor. The controller is also programmed to operate the gripper to grasp the object in response to information provided by the first onboard sensor.

A system including a robot mean to move a member by using a first camera coupled to the robot, a second camera coupled to the robot, a control device configured to control position of the robot in order to minimize a pixel-wise distance between the member and a target based on alternating input from the first camera and the second camera.

A method for calibrating a robot system having a planar pick surface includes: bringing a robot gripper to a first location against the pick surface; and generating a first image of the robot gripper from below. When knowing that a certain identifiable part of the robot gripper in images always lies against the planar pick surface, the position and orientation of the pick surface in relation to a manipulator coordinate frame can be fully defined if the robot gripper's orientation in relation to the pick surface is known, or if there are images on identifiable parts of the robot gripper in at least three different positions against the pick surface.

A method for measuring a pose of a robotic end tool, including: obtaining a three-dimensional feature of a flange and a three-dimensional feature of the end tool, establishing a first coordinate system and a second coordinate system at the center of the flange and the center of the end tool respectively, calculating a positional offset of the second coordinate system relative to the first coordinate system, and calculating a rotation offset of the second coordinate system relative to the first coordinate system according to each unit vector of the second coordinate system, so as to obtain a pose of the end tool relative to the flange. The method provided in the present application, compared with the manual observation method, the precision and stability of the pose measurement method are high.

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.