Digital Positioning Technique Patents (Class 700/186)
  • Patent number: 11911862
    Abstract: In a method for automated positioning of a blank in a processing machine provided with a housing and a spindle unit with an electric motor, a control unit for control and electrical supply of the processing machine, a computer producing processing programs for manufacturing workpieces, a workpiece holder, and an image recording unit that optically records image data of a blank received in the workpiece holder, a blank is fixed in the processing machine and the image recording unit produces an image of the blank. A division of the blank into an already processed region and into an unprocessed region based on the image data of the image is performed. A workpiece geometry to be produced is assigned to the unprocessed region of the blank, and a milling operation is performed on the unprocessed region. In a variant of the method, the image recording unit is separate from the processing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: vhf camfacture Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Frank Benzinger
  • Patent number: 11809160
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for integrating control and operation of multi-tooltip processes with computer-aided manufacturing and/or design software and systems include method(s) including: obtaining toolpaths for manufacturing a physical structure and process control constraints, each of the toolpaths corresponding to a respective tooltip of a computer-controlled tool of a manufacturing system, each of the toolpaths designates a respective path for the respective tooltip within a workspace, and the process control constraints define capabilities of each of the respective tooltips within the workspace; defining a main toolpath and metadata defining operational parameters for the toolpaths based on the process control constraints; simulating manufacturing of the physical structure using the main toolpath and the metadata; and providing at least the main toolpath and the metadata for use in manufacturing the physical structure by the computer-controlled
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
    Inventor: Fikret Kalay
  • Patent number: 11738460
    Abstract: A system having a sensor system comprising distance sensors for monitoring a hazardous zone at a movable machine part having at least one protected zone, wherein a tool is arranged at the movable machine part, wherein the distance sensors are arranged at a holder at the movable machine part, wherein a plurality of distance sensors are arranged, with the detection beams of the distance sensors forming a protected field shell, wherein the holder has the distance sensors, with the holder having a disk-shaped housing, with the disk-shaped housing having round surfaces and not having any corners at the outer surfaces, with the system comprising a fastening system, the fastening system comprises one of a first fastening adapter and a second fastening adapter at which the holder is respectively arranged for fastening the holder to the movable machine part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: SICK AG
    Inventors: Christoph Hoffmann, Patrick Erlewein, Axel Schonhardt
  • Patent number: 11701766
    Abstract: An electric motor-driven screwdriver includes a control circuit having a memory stored with setting data and a computing unit controlling the electric motor-driven screwdriver based on the setting data. The computing unit sets an execution order of work processes based on a pre-designated piece of order setting data, and sets, based on a next operation setting value, a next operation to be performed after completion of the final work process. The next operation setting value is selectable from among a setting value for stopping the operation of the electric motor-driven screwdriver, a setting value for repeating a series of work processes, and a setting value for shifting to a series of work processes in an execution order determined based on another piece of order setting data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: NITTO KOHKI CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Shota Arai
  • Patent number: 11559917
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to systems and methods for pressing a door assembly involving a scanning system operable to survey an outer surface of a door skin and identify a location of one or more recessed panel portions on the door skin, and a press operable to selectably actuate a group of actuators based on the identified location of the recessed panel portions, where the actuators drive press members onto the one or more recessed panel portions of the door skin during a pressing operation to facilitate crushing of portions of a core of the door assembly that underlie the recessed panel portion of the door skin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: JELD-WEN, INC.
    Inventors: Daniel Maher, Wilson Brown
  • Patent number: 11561528
    Abstract: A combination of electronic hardware, a microprocessor (embodied, e.g., in a personal-style computer (“PC”)), and control software blended together with unique systems integration techniques. When stationed at a machine tool, the result is an grated, interactive and intuitive machine tool or workstation capable of computer aided design (CAD), optional reverse engineering parts via coordinate measurement machining (CMM), toolpath generation computer aided manufacturing (CAM), and direct machine tool control (Direct CNC) by one person at one work station with a common human machine interface (HMI) and common file formats.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Inventor: James Edmund Trounson, III
  • Patent number: 11554482
    Abstract: Example implementations described herein are directed to a simulation environment for a real world system involving one or more robots and one or more sensors. Scenarios are loaded into a simulation environment having one or more virtual robots corresponding to the one or more robots, and one or more virtual sensors corresponding to the one or more virtual system to train a control strategy model from reinforcement learning, which is subsequently deployed to the real world environment. In cases of failure of the real world environment, the failures are provided to the simulation environment to generate an updated control strategy model for the real world environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Heming Chen, Yi-Chu Chang
  • Patent number: 11454946
    Abstract: A waveform display device includes a position information acquisition unit configured to acquire, from a controller for controlling a machine tool, position information indicating a position of a driving axis of the machine tool during machining of a workpiece, a machine information acquisition unit configured to acquire machine information indicating axis configuration of the machine tool, a machining point coordinate calculation unit configured to calculate a coordinate of a machining point of a tool installed to the machine tool, on the basis of the position information and the machine information, a reference surface setting unit configured to set a targeted machining surface of the workpiece as a reference surface, a distance calculation unit configured to calculate distance from each of a plurality of the machining to the reference surface, and a waveform display unit configured to display the calculated distances of the plurality of machining points in a wave form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Junichi Tezuka
  • Patent number: 11314230
    Abstract: A machining program generation support device includes: a CAD data analysis unit which analyzes the CAD data of a workpiece so as to obtain CAD shape information; a machining program analysis unit which analyzes a machining program that is in the middle of being produced by an operator so as to obtain machining shape information; a relative position matching unit which performs relative position matching of shapes of the CAD shape information and the machining shape information so as to obtain relative position matching shape information and to determine, based on the relative position matching shape information, whether or not an input error of a position is made by the operator in the machining shape information; and a display unit which displays the machining shape information and which displays a part of the input error of the position and made by the operator in the machining shape information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Zhaojia Liu
  • Patent number: 11287802
    Abstract: Simulation methods for simulating a real control (2) for an industrial process, a plant or a machine shall be able to determine errors occurring in the course of simulation more easily. For this purpose the invention proposes that the simulation system (7) stores intermediate states during the simulation and time-stamps them, wherein a stored intermediate state can be reloaded into the simulation system (7) at a later time and a simulation carried out on the basis thereof. As a result, simulations do not always need to start with the beginning of the control program to be simulated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Karl-Josef Amthor
  • Patent number: 11161239
    Abstract: A work robot system includes, a work robot and a work robot control unit that perform work on a target part of an object conveyed by a conveyer device, a measurement robot, a sensor that is attached to the measurement robot and that detects a position of a detection target of the object conveyed by the conveyer device, a measurement robot control unit that moves, through control of the measurement robot, the sensor in accordance with conveyance of the object, in order to detect the position, and a force detector that is used when force control is performed. When the work robot performs the work, the work robot control unit performs force control while performing control of the work robot based on a detection result of the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masafumi Ooba
  • Patent number: 11161697
    Abstract: A work robot system includes, a work robot configured to perform a predetermined operation to a target part on an object moved by a conveyer device, a work robot controller, a sensor disposed at a predetermined position, and configured to detect a position of a detection target on the object moved by the conveyer device, and a force detector that is used when force control is performed. When the predetermined operation is performed by the work robot, the work robot controller performs force control while controlling the work robot based on a detection result of the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masafumi Ooba
  • Patent number: 11097530
    Abstract: The three-dimensional modeling device includes a three-dimensional data acquisition unit that acquires three-dimensional data representing a three-dimensional structure with voxels, a discharge mechanism that discharges a laminated material including a plurality of kinds of dyes, and a control unit that controls the discharge mechanism based on the three-dimensional data so as to model the three-dimensional model. One of the voxels is divided into a plurality of elements in each of intersecting three directions, each of the plurality of the elements is provided with color data corresponding to one of a plurality of colors, and the color data of the element is determined such that all of a plurality of surfaces of the voxel has an approximately identical color.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2021
    Assignees: Mutoh Industries Ltd., Hosei University
    Inventors: Takashi Touma, Chiaki Tanuma
  • Patent number: 11067962
    Abstract: A machine tool has a tool and a workpiece clamped into a workpiece holder on a workpiece table and a tool. The workpiece table is rotatable about a rotation axis in a position-controlled manner by a plurality of complete revolutions, and the tool is movable at least parallel to the rotation axis in a position-controlled manner. While the workpiece table is rotated, the tool is placed at least temporarily against the workpiece on a side substantially facing away from the workpiece table, machines the workpiece, and the tool is at a distance being at least equal to a predefined minimum distance from the rotation axis. The first workpiece holder is displaced in a direction that has a component towards or away from the rotation axis on the workpiece table in a position-controlled manner during the machining of the first workpiece by the first tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Jochen Bretschneider
  • Patent number: 11036207
    Abstract: Relative movement between a tool and a workpiece for machining the workpiece with a machine tool is controlled by defining a machine coordinate system (MKS) relative to a machine base of the machine tool and a rotation coordinate system (RKS) relative to the MKS by defining the origin of the RKS in the MKS, defining the orientation of a selected coordinate axis of the RKS in the MKS, defining an axis of rotation around which the RKS rotates in the MKS, defining an angular velocity with which the RKS rotates around the axis of rotation, defining a tool path in the RKS, and controlling the relative movement according to the defined tool path. With this procedure, complex movements of a machine tool, in particular in connection with so-called interpolation turning, can be described or programmed in a relatively simple manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
    Inventors: Kathrin Kunis, Reinhard Simons, Andreas Uhlich, André Vieweg
  • Patent number: 10903099
    Abstract: Provided is a semiconductor wafer placement position determination method making it possible to measure a position deviation at a placement position of a semiconductor wafer when using a susceptor that is N-fold symmetric with respect to the center of the susceptor as a rotation axis. In this method, an opening edge of a counterbore portion of the susceptor is N-fold symmetric with respect to the center of the susceptor as a rotation axis (N?2). This method includes: a measurement step of measuring, while rotating the susceptor on which the semiconductor wafer is placed, a gap distance between a periphery of the semiconductor wafer and the opening edge; a first calculation step of performing, based on variation of the gap distance, period regression analysis; and a second calculation step of determining the position deviation based on an amplitude of a trigonometric function obtained by the first calculation step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2021
    Assignee: SUMCO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ikuhiro Nakamura, Keiichi Takanashi
  • Patent number: 10882183
    Abstract: A robot controlling method for operating an arm using a motor includes: performing, before the arm stops, addition to add a backlash compensation value to a position command which is input to the motor; and performing, in a period during which the robot arm is not in motion, subtraction to reduce the backlash compensation value added to the position command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Nakata, Atsumi Hashimoto, Yasuyoshi Honuchi, Ryosuke Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 10867082
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for optimizing designs of composite parts. One embodiment is a method that includes identifying, at a controller, a candidate movement of a ply to a new ply position within a composite part, based on an objective function, loading, at the controller, stacking sequence rules that dictate how fibers are oriented across ply sequences of the composite part, and determining, at the controller, whether the candidate movement complies with the stacking sequence rules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventors: Richard J. Thompson, Adriana Willempje Blom-Schieber
  • Patent number: 10739749
    Abstract: A system and method capable of encoding design intent for an article of manufacture wherein the original design intent encoding is abstract from any particular manufacturing process or machine, but allows for dynamic process adjustment accounting for real-world variations of stock material such that the design intent is preserved and the processing time and effort are not significantly affected. Because design intent is preserved, tool selection and machine process can be optimized to maximize quality and minimize manufacturing time and cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: KVAL, INC.
    Inventors: David Schneider, Jedidiah Buck McCready
  • Patent number: 10719069
    Abstract: A systematic approach to constructing process plans for hybrid manufacturing is provided. The process plans include arbitrary combinations of AM and SM processes. Unlike the suboptimal conventional practice, the sequence of AM and SM modalities is not fixed beforehand. Rather, all potentially viable process plans to fabricate a desired target part from arbitrary alternating sequences of pre-defined AM and SM modalities are explored in a systematic fashion. Once the state space of all process plans has been enumerated in terms of a partially ordered set of states, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) planning techniques are utilized to rapidly explore the state space, eliminate invalid process plans, for instance, process plans that make no physical sense, and optimize among the valid process plans using a cost function, for instance, manufacturing time and material or process costs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2020
    Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated
    Inventors: Morad Behandish, Saigopal Nelaturi, Johan de Kleer
  • Patent number: 10705489
    Abstract: A controller that allows reteaching of a machine made up of a plurality of mechanisms to be easily performed is provided. The controller includes a machine position acquiring section that acquires the current positions of mechanisms, a reteach block search section that assigns rank order numbers to linkage information that indicates linkage between blocks of a plurality of machine control programs on the basis of relation between the current positions of the mechanisms and taught positions in blocks in the machine control programs that are indicated as being linked to one another by the linkage information, a search result output section that outputs blocks relating to the linkage information on the basis of the rank order numbers assigned by the reteach block search section, and a reteach result reflecting section that reflects, in blocks of the plurality of machine control programs that are selected as blocks to be retaught, the current positions of the mechanisms as positions to be retaught.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yoshiyuki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10675767
    Abstract: A robot system and a robot controller, by which a teaching operation, etc., of a robot can be intuitively carried out by a simple operation. The robot has a sensor arranged on a surface of a movable part or the robot, and the sensor is configured to detect a three-dimensional position of an article, when the article contacts or is close to the sensor. When the article reaches a reference position, a mode change section switches a motion mode of the robot to a following mode. In the following mode, based on the direction of movement of the article from the reference position, the direction of motion of the robot is determined. Then, a motion control section controls the motion of each axis of the robot so that a portion where the article contacts moves in a direction generally the same as the direction of movement of the article.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hidesato Takaoki
  • Patent number: 10571548
    Abstract: A method and system for determining position and/or pose of an object. A robotic device moves throughout an environment and includes a master transceiver tag and, optionally, additional tags. The environment includes a plurality of anchor nodes that are configured to form a network. A master anchor node is in communication with at least a portion of the plurality of anchor nodes and is configured to transmit a ranging message as a UWB signal, receive a ranging message response from each other anchor node in the network, generate a reference grid representing physical locations of the plurality of anchor nodes within the network based upon the received ranging message responses, and distribute the reference grid to each of the other anchor nodes. The master transceiver tag receives the reference grid information and, based upon further calculations, determines a specific position and pose of the robotic device within the environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: Discovery Robotics
    Inventor: Larry J. Williams
  • Patent number: 10537388
    Abstract: Systems and methods for planning and performing image free implant revision surgery are discussed. For example, a method for generating a revision plan can include collecting pre-defined parameters characterizing a target bone, generating a 3D model, collecting a plurality of surface points, and generating a reshaped 3D model. Generating the 3D model of the target bone can be based on a first portion of the pre-defined parameters. Generating the reshaped 3D model can be done based on the plurality of surface points collected from a portion of the surface of the target bone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2020
    Assignee: Blue Belt Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Branislav Jaramaz, Alberto Gregori
  • Patent number: 10520936
    Abstract: An automated system including a control target device and a control device which controls the control target device, in which it is possible to accurately estimate whether maintenance of the control target device is required and a portion requiring maintenance. The control device is an adaptive control device including a position control system, an adaptive identifier which estimates a parameter indicating a state of a control target device based on a control command and a control target output from the control target device, and an adaptive compensator which, based on the parameter which is estimated by the adaptive identifier, compensates the control command from the position control system to the control target device such that the control target device performs a planned operation regardless of a change in the parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: FUJI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Makoto Kainuma, Masatoshi Fujita, Ryo Nagata, Takashi Kido
  • Patent number: 10500833
    Abstract: A 3D printing device and a resume printing method thereof are provided. The method includes: executing printing commands sequentially to control a print head for printing; obtaining a first printing command executed when a printing interruption occurs, and resuming printing according to the first printing command.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignees: XYZprinting, Inc., Kinpo Electronics, Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Yuan Chang, Yu-Jie Yang
  • Patent number: 10444738
    Abstract: An information processor creates and records execution history information of programs executed by numerical controllers according to information about the programs. The information processor records information (favorite information) about a program corresponding to a favorite condition among the programs, and classifies the recorded favorite information according to the contents of the corresponding program. The information processor transfers the recorded favorite information to a numerical controller according to the classified result in response to a request of the corresponding numerical controller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Ryuuta Hitomi
  • Patent number: 10414051
    Abstract: A disclosed robot system enables an operator of an articulating arm used in fabricating window or door frames to recover the position of the tools during the cleaning process with minimal knowledge or training on a robot. The disclosed robot system also gives the operator the ability to edit a tool cleaning path with simple commands from an operator interface (e.g., HMI) to bring flexibility in customizing the use of the articulating arm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: GED Integrated Solutions, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy B. McGlinchy, Anthony Benjamin DiFiore, Shiu-Chung Fan
  • Patent number: 10248186
    Abstract: Power reduction and voltage adjustment techniques for computing systems and processing devices are presented herein. In one example, a method includes receiving a voltage characterization service over a communication interface of the computing apparatus as transferred by a deployment platform remote from the computing apparatus. The method includes executing the voltage characterization service for a processing device of the computing apparatus to determine at least one input voltage for the processing device lower than a manufacturer specified operating voltage, the voltage characterization service comprising a functional test that exercises the processing device at iteratively adjusted voltages in context with associated system elements of the computing apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2019
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: William Paul Hovis, Garrett Douglas Blankenburg, Peter Anthony Atkinson, Robert James Ray, Andres Felipe Hernandez Mojica, Samy Boshra-Riad, Erng-Sing Wee, Brian Keith Langendorf
  • Patent number: 10037021
    Abstract: A numerical controller which controls a machine tool on the basis of a program instruction analyzes the program instruction to generate movement instruction data, and sets a value of a constant used for speed change on the basis of a physical amount regarding a curvature at a current position on a movement path based on the generated movement instruction data. Then, the numerical controller calculates movement speeds of axes of the machine tool using the set value of the constant used for the speed change, and controls the axes on the basis of the calculated movement speeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Nobuhito Oonishi
  • Patent number: 10007251
    Abstract: A machine tool control device includes a calculation unit for estimating, on the basis of the tool path for machining using a tool and information on the workpiece, the portion of the tool that forms the final machined surface. The control device also includes a feed rate-setting unit for estimating the fastest moving point, among multiple moving points contained in the portion that forms the final machined surface, for which the relative velocity of the tool with respect to the workpiece is maximum and setting the feed rates for the machine tool movement shafts so that the relative velocity of the fastest moving point is at or below a previously specified relative velocity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2018
    Assignee: MAKINO MILLING MACHINE CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yasunori Masumiya, Keitaro Suzuki, Kyohei Suzuki
  • Patent number: 9921567
    Abstract: Improvements in a high speed smooth tool path is presented where the high speed smooth tool path to be used for primarily finishing for finishing any type of walls (negative/positive drafted) for any given bounded region be it 3, 4, 5, . . . n sided shape. The tool path incorporates a combined strategy for finishing the walls while removing any excess material leftover from a previous larger diameter cutter. This tool-motion can be utilized for roughing the regions by approximating the walls by offsetting the regions inwards. The finished boundaries are offset inwards and then cut using these methods. This is optimized as opposed to moving the cutter at a consistent speed in the cutting path. This is performed to eliminate the wasted tool-motion to the maximum extent. This technique is implemented for roughing any closed or open bounded areas regardless of the walls being straight, drafted (negative/positive or both).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2018
    Inventor: Samarinder Singh
  • Patent number: 9910426
    Abstract: A controller for controlling a synchronized operation of spindle and feed axes. A spindle-axis control section includes a section for making a spindle axis perform an accelerated rotation at maximum capacity from a process start position; sections for respectively detecting a maximum acceleration, a residual rotation amount and a current speed of the spindle axis; a section for making the spindle axis perform a decelerated rotation at maximum capacity to reach a target thread depth after the accelerated rotation; and a section for executing a torque-limiting during the accelerated rotation of the spindle axis, in such a manner that a torque command lower than a maximum torque command is given to the spindle axis at a start of acceleration, and thereafter the torque command is gradually increased so that the maximum torque command is given to the spindle axis when a predetermined time has elapsed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yuuki Morita, Tadashi Okita
  • Patent number: 9851197
    Abstract: A device has a displaceable device part, a drive, which is configured to drive the displaceable device part and to thus induce a movement in the displaceable device part, and a control unit, which is connected to the drive and is configured to control the drive. The device further has a first signal transmitter for determining a position and/or speed of the displaceable device part. The first signal transmitter and/or a first signal evaluation device, which is connected to the signal transmitter, are connected to the control unit such that the control unit receives information from the signal transmitter about the position and/or speed of the displaceable device part during operation of the device and controls the drive on the basis of the information received. A second signal transmitter of the device serves to monitor and/or redundantly determine the position and/or speed of the displaceable device part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: Carl Zeiss Industrielle Messtechnik GmbH
    Inventors: Otto Ruck, Peter Uhl
  • Patent number: 9722640
    Abstract: A method and system for determining position and/or pose of an object. A robotic device moves throughout an environment and includes a master transceiver tag and, optionally, additional tags. The environment includes a plurality of anchor nodes that are configured to form a network. A master anchor node is in communication with at least a portion of the plurality of anchor nodes and is configured to transmit a ranging message as a UWB signal, receive a ranging message response from each other anchor node in the network, generate a reference grid representing physical locations of the plurality of anchor nodes within the network based upon the received ranging message responses, and distribute the reference grid to each of the other anchor nodes. The master transceiver tag receives the reference grid information and, based upon further calculations, determines a specific position and pose of the robotic device within the environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: Discovery Robotics
    Inventor: Larry J. Williams
  • Patent number: 9714833
    Abstract: A method of determining the location of a point of interest is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of providing an optical detector; capturing an image by the optical detector; obtaining the position and orientation of the optical detector; identifying at least one coordinates of the point of interest within the captured image; mapping the position of the optical detector and the coordinates of the point of interest in a digital elevation model; and determining the location of the point of interest by projecting at least one path from the position of the optical detector through the coordinates of the point of interest in the digital elevation model. A system for determining the location of a point of interest by utilizing the aforesaid method is also disclosed herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2017
    Assignee: Insight Robotics Limited
    Inventors: Pui Sum Rex Sham, Chik Man So
  • Patent number: 9671896
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, an interface system includes a touch panel, a pattern detecting unit, and an identification information acquisition unit. The touch panel supports a multi-touch input. The pattern detecting unit detects a pressing pattern of a pressing portion having a predetermined shape that is provided on a mounted portion of a predetermined object to be mounted on the touch panel. The identification information acquisition unit acquires information indicated by the pressing pattern to be detected by the pattern detecting unit as identification information of the object mounted on the touch panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2017
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takahisa Hirano
  • Patent number: 9636780
    Abstract: Two substrate pieces are welded together with a focused laser beam. One of the pieces is transparent in the wave length of the laser beam. The two pieces are pressed together so the tops of the roughness of the joining surfaces become level and both a uniform and pocket like air layer is removed from between the surfaces. The focal point of the laser beam is focused in the common boundary surface of the substrate pieces and the pieces are set to movement in relation to the laser beam so that the focal point advances in the boundary surface according to the shape and length of the weld. The energy of the focal point melts the material of the two pieces at the same time. When the melts mix and harden, a weld is formed that joins the pieces hermetically and goes round the third piece(s) isolating it hermetically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: Primoceler Oy
    Inventor: Antti Maattanen
  • Patent number: 9492886
    Abstract: A method for monitoring a laser machining operation to be performed on a workpiece by detecting at least two current measured valued by at least one sensor which monitors the laser machining operation and determining at least two current characteristic values from the at least two current measured value, wherein the at least two current characteristic values jointly represent a current fingerprint in a characteristic value space and providing a predetermined point set in a characteristic value space, and classifying the laser machining operation by\detecting the position of the current fingerprint relative to the predetermined point set in the characteristic value space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignees: PRECITEC KG, PRECITEC ITM GMBH
    Inventor: Ingo Stork Genannt Wersborg
  • Patent number: 9454146
    Abstract: A numerical controller controls a five-axis machining machine that machines a workpiece attached to a table with three linear axes and two rotary axes. The numerical controller inputs a relative tool direction that represents a relative position of the tool direction with respect to the workpiece after the rotary axes are moved by a manual operation, as a vector, roll-pitch-yaw angles, or Euler angles. The numerical controller further converts the relative tool direction thus input into the rotary axis positions of the two rotary axes and drives the two rotary axes based on the rotary axis position thus converted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2016
    Assignee: FANUC Corporation
    Inventor: Kimio Abe
  • Patent number: 9268322
    Abstract: An apparatus that creates, based on shape data of an object to be machined and grinding allowance data for the shape data, a numerically controlled machining program that has the grinding allowance data reflected in the shape data, is configured to include storing means 2 and 4 that store the shape data of the object to be machined and the grinding allowance data; a shape data modification means 5 that modifies the shape data to create, based on the grinding allowance data, shape data having a grinding allowance; and a numerically controlled machining program creation means 6 that creates a numerically controlled machining program for the modified shape data, with the apparatus enabling easy and efficient creation of a numerically controlled machining program having the grinding allowance reflected in the shape data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2016
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Susumu Matsubara, Kenji Iriguchi, Nobuyuki Takahashi, Mahito Matsuura, Takeshi Tasaka, Takashi Kambara
  • Patent number: 9229439
    Abstract: In a device and a method for operating a driven axle in a machine tool, in particular in an injection-molding machine, at least two different drives are coupled to form a common effective drive, wherein the performance and energy consumption data for each drive are stored in the form of characteristic values or characteristic curves. To use the effective drive as optimally as possible in terms of energy, it is proposed to determine the performance requirement for the driven axle, to determine the particular operational combination of the different drives that requires the least expenditure of energy based on the determined performance requirement and to drive the drives with the determined particular operational combination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: NETSTAL-MASCHINEN AG
    Inventor: Markus Notz
  • Patent number: 9221137
    Abstract: In a laser-based alignment system, a laser sensor tool, comprising a laser emitter and detector element can be gripped by a gripper unit of a robotic arm and used to automatically align the robotic arm with a work surface. A landmark on the work surface can be identified by scanning the work surface with the laser sensor in an X-Y plane. A center point of the landmark in the X-Y plane can be determined to align the gripper unit with the work surface in the X-Y plane. The robotic arm can be calibrated on a Z-axis by moving the gripper downward in a z-direction until the gripper unit contacts the work surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Beckman Coulter, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen Otts
  • Patent number: 9211624
    Abstract: Determination of chatter vibration is done for a plurality of peak values that appears when frequency-domain vibrational acceleration is obtained through fast Fourier analysis on time-domain vibrational acceleration. In machining at a low rotation speed and machining using a tool with small flute number in particular, a type of chatter vibration that has occurred can be accurately determined, and “natural type vibration” occurring due to friction between a tool and a workpiece and an impact force caused by machining can also be determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: Okuma Corporation
    Inventor: Takaaki Tanaka
  • Patent number: 9128810
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for automatically portioning workpieces, such as food products, by simulating portioning the workpieces in accordance with one or more directly controlled characteristics (parameters/specifications) and/or indirectly controlled characteristics (parameters/specifications). The workpiece is scanned to obtain scanning information, then simulating portioning of the workpiece is carried out in accordance with the one or more directly controlled characteristics (parameters/specifications), thereby to determine the one or more indirectly controlled characteristics of the one or more final pieces to be portioned from the workpiece. The simulated portioning of the workpiece is performed for multiple combinations of one or more directly controlled characteristics until an acceptable set of one or more directly controlled characteristics and/or one or more indirectly controlled characteristics is determined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2015
    Assignee: John Bean Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: George R. Blaine, Craig E. Pfarr, David A. Below
  • Patent number: 9122257
    Abstract: A thread cutting machine for cutting a thread by rotating a main spindle and moving a feed axis includes a main-spindle speed computing section that computes and outputs a rotation speed of the main spindle based on a main-spindle rotation speed instruction for each thread cutting pass, and an acceleration/deceleration time computing section that computes and outputs an acceleration/deceleration delay time of the feed axis for each thread cutting pass so that a product of multiplication of the acceleration/deceleration delay time of the feed axis and the rotation speed of the main spindle is the same for all thread cutting passes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Okuma Corporation
    Inventor: Shigeki Ueno
  • Patent number: 9122267
    Abstract: An interference checking device includes a contour shape analyzing unit that extracts a contour shape of a tool cross section and a tool length by analyzing a two-dimensional image of a rotating tool, a rotation center analyzing unit that obtains a rotation center of the rotating tool by analyzing the contour shape, a three-dimensional-rotation-shape generating unit that generates a three-dimensional shape of the rotating tool on the basis of the contour shape, the tool length, and the rotation center, and an interference check processing unit that checks whether the rotating tool and a component other than the rotating tool interfere with each other when numerical control machining is performed on a workpiece by using the rotating tool, by using the three-dimensional shape, in which the three-dimensional-rotation-shape generating unit generates the three-dimensional shape by using a left-side contour shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2015
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Morita, Nobuyuki Takahashi, Tadahiro Otsuka
  • Patent number: 9105077
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for classifying a multitude of images recorded by a camera observing a processing area of a workpiece processed by a processing beam, comprising the steps of: recording a first pixel image and a multitude of subsequent pixel images by the camera during a processing operation; detecting mismatches of a position and orientation of a keyhole generated by the processing beam in the workpiece within an image plane of the subsequent pixel images in comparison to the first pixel image; compensating the mismatches of the position and orientation of the respective keyholes in the subsequent pixel images with regard to the first pixel image, to produce a set of pixel images having each a normalized keyhole position and orientation; classifying the set of normalized pixel images into at least two classes by means of a classifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignees: PRECITEC KG, PRECITEC ITM GMBH
    Inventors: Ingo Stork Genannt Wersborg, Stefan Müller-Meerkatz
  • Publication number: 20150142166
    Abstract: In a numerical control device, a command read out unit sequentially reads out time or a position of an axis or a spindle which is a reference and a position of a different axis or spindle from the axis or the spindle which is the reference or an auxiliary function that are stored in a storage unit. A selection unit selects a processing unit that processes a command which is read out by the command read out unit on the basis of a definition set by a definition unit. The definition unit defines commands executed by each processing unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 18, 2014
    Publication date: May 21, 2015
    Inventor: Akira KANEMARU
  • Publication number: 20150134105
    Abstract: A numerical control apparatus includes a program analyzing unit configured to pre-fetch a tool replacement command and a post-replacement positioning command from a machining program and output these commands, a tool-replacement-command output unit configured to cause, based on the tool replacement command, a machine tool to execute a tool replacing operation, and a movement-command determining unit and an interpolating unit configured to start, when the post-replacement positioning command is an axis component command for positioning an axis related to the tool replacing operation, control of the axis based on the axis component command, after waiting for completion of the tool replacing operation, and start, when the post-replacement positioning command is an axis component command for positioning an axis unrelated to the tool replacing operation, control of the axis based on the axis component command, without waiting for the same.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2012
    Publication date: May 14, 2015
    Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yukihiro Iuchi, Daisuke Fujino, Shunro Ono