Abstract: A method is provided for tracking a hand-guided robot including a control unit and at least one manipulator coupled to an end effector, in which the manipulator includes a plurality of joints and links and the end effector is manually displaceable within an operational volume. In the method, the control unit determines at least one movement information of each joint during and/or after a manual or partially manual displacement of the end effector, and a position and orientation information of the end effector inside the operational volume during and/or after the displacement of the end effector using the determined movement information of each joint and a software-based kinematic and dynamic model of the manipulator stored in a memory of the control unit.

Abstract: Systems and methods for navigating a vehicle within an environment are provided. In one aspect, a method comprises: (a) selecting, with aid of a processor, a subset of a plurality of sensors to be used for navigating the vehicle within the environment based on one or more predetermined criteria, wherein the plurality of sensors are arranged on the vehicle such that each sensor of the plurality of sensors is configured to obtain sensor data from a different field of view; (b) processing, with aid of the processor, the sensor data from the selected sensor(s) so as to generate navigation information for navigating the vehicle within the environment; and (c) outputting, with aid of the processor, signals for controlling the vehicle based on the navigation information.

Abstract: If an interaction target includes a child and an adult, and if an interaction amount is greater than or equal to a threshold, a robot asks the adult if the adult allows the robot to continue interacting with the child. If the target includes the child and the adult, and if the interaction amount is less than the threshold, the robot requests to the adult that the adult and the child continue interacting with the robot. If the target includes only the child, and if the interaction amount is greater than or equal to the threshold, the robot stops interacting with the child. If the target includes only the child, and if the interaction amount is less than the threshold, the robot leads the child to continue interacting with the robot.

Abstract: An aircraft includes a wing. The wing includes an aileron pivotally connected to a trailing edge of the wing, and a Lam aileron pivotally connected to the trailing edge of the wing. The aircraft includes a motor connected to the Lam aileron and configured to rotate the Lam aileron. The aircraft includes a controller configured to detect a deflection of the aileron from a neutral position, calculate a target deflection for the Lam aileron using the deflection of the aileron, and cause the motor to rotate the Lam aileron to the target deflection.

Abstract: A method for balancing electrical grid production with electrical grid demand according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, controlling an electrified vehicle prior to and during an inductive roadway event to either conserve a state of charge of a battery pack in response to a first grid condition of an electrical grid or deplete the state of charge of the battery pack in response to a second grid condition of the electrical grid.

Abstract: Roll control is provided for a device by controlling the roll-angle offset about the device roll axis in correspondence to a specified rotation of a reference frame for the device. This specified rotation may correspond to a roll-free rotation of the reference frame to align a corresponding reference roll axis with the device roll axis. In applications to robotics generally, the device may be characterized as a robotic element or a robotically-supported instrument. In specific applications to robotic surgery in a computer-assisted medical system, the device may include a spar or cannula that is configured to support a surgical instrument.

Abstract: A drone payload device includes a remote drone arm and a control module. The remote drone are is coupleable to a drone. The remote drone arm includes a base, an arm, and a gripper. The base includes mounting hardware to couple to the drone. The arm extends from the base. The griper is coupled to the arm at an end of the arm distal from the base. The control module is coupleable to a drone controller. The control module is to provide a control signal to the remote drone arm to control a movement of at least one of the arm and the gripper.

Abstract: A mirror replacement device includes a gripping mechanism to grip a segment mirror, a fine drive mechanism to change a position and a posture of the gripping mechanism, a lift mechanism for the segment mirror, a first detector to detect a relative position and a relative posture between a comparison object and a target object, a second detector to detect a bend of the fine drive mechanism, and a mirror replacement controller to replace the segment mirror based on detection signals output from the above-mentioned detectors. The controller determines whether the first detector can successfully perform a measurement. When it is determined that the measurement can be successfully performed, the control is performed based on the detection signal output from the first detector. When it is determined that the measurement cannot be successfully performed, the control is performed based on the detection signal output from the second detector.

Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure relate to an autonomous vehicle that may detected other nearby vehicles and identify them as parked or unparked. This identification may be based on visual indicia displayed by the detected vehicles as well as traffic control factors relating to the detected vehicles. Detected vehicles that are in a known parking spot may automatically be identified as parked. In addition, detected vehicles that satisfy conditions that are indications of being parked may also be identified as parked. The autonomous vehicle may then base its control strategy on whether or not a vehicle has been identified as parked or not.

Abstract: A robot system includes a light source, an image capture device, a robot mechanism unit having a target site of position control where the light source is provided, and a robot controller that controls the position of the robot mechanism unit based on a position command, a position feedback, and a position compensation value. The robot controller includes a path acquisition unit that makes the image capture device capture an image of light from the light source continuously during the predetermined operation to acquire a path of the light source from the image capture device, a positional error estimation unit that estimates positional error of the path of the light source from the position command based on the acquired path of the light source and the position command, and a compensation value generation unit that generates the position compensation value based on the estimated positional error.

Abstract: A dummy tool is used to teach a robot the path the robot will follow to perform work on a workpiece to eliminate the possibility of damaging an actual tool during the training. The dummy tool provides the robot programmer an indication of potential collisions between the tool and the workpiece and other objects in the work cell when path is being taught. The dummy tool can have a detachable input/output device with a graphic user interface (GUI) that can communicate wirelessly with the robot controller. The dummy tool can also have a moveable camera attached thereto to track the relationship of the tool to objects in the work area.

Abstract: Robots may be automatically instantiated, modified, evolved, trained, or terminated based on location, time of day, user preference, special event trigger, or emergency. The robots may perform tasks to provide selective services on-demand within medicine, agriculture, military, entertainment, manufacturing, personal, or public safety, among other things.

Abstract: Robot systems including a robot, an on-premise computing device, and a cloud services system are disclosed. An on-premise computing device includes a processor and a non-transitory memory device storing machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive raw sensor data from a robot, pre-process the sensor data to remove unnecessary information from the sensor data and obtain pre-processed data, transmit the pre-processed data to a cloud services system, receive, from the cloud services system, an object type, an object pose, and an object location of an object corresponding to the pre-processed data, and transmit a signal to the robot based on at least one of the object type, the object pose, and the object location of the object.

Abstract: A robot motion program generating apparatus generates a motion program for moving a robot, avoiding an obstacle. The apparatus comprises a section inputting a taught trajectory of the robot, a section setting a tolerance region around the trajectory inputted by the trajectory inputting section, a section setting a motion-point group that is a collection of the motion points, by determining motion points of the robot in the tolerance region set by the region setting section, and iterating a task of connecting a source motion point to a subsequent motion point through a line segment, avoiding the obstacle, starting from one end and ending at the other end of the trajectory, and a section generating the motion program, based on the motion-point group set by the point-group setting section.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method, the QCODE method, of geotagging all postal addresses and other points of interest that one might want to navigate to and which allows the user to identify these addresses and other points of interest with a code consisting of 7 to 10 characters or less. A point of interest may or may not have a street address, for example, “the main entrance to the Jefferson Building at the USPTO complex in Alexandria Va.” or “the entrance to the VIP parking area at Yankee Stadium”. The disclosure teaches embodiments that are naturally upgraded to integrate changing spatial information due to addition of countries, better data, political changes, and other similar changes in geographical data. A single geocoding engine is capable of handling the various address formats in use in different countries and jurisdictions.

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.

Abstract: A robot system is provided, which includes a robot body including, robot arm and an end effector attached to robot arm, and operating device, having operating part and configured to output, when operating part is operated, operational information according to operation, a motion controller configured to control operation of robot body according to the operational information outputted from the operating device, a velocity detector configured to detect a velocity at a tip end of the end effector, a virtual reaction-force information generating module configured to output force information containing a first force component having a positive correlation to the velocity at the tip end of the end effector, as virtual reaction-force information, and a force applying device configured to give a force to the operating part in order to make an operator perceive a force according to the virtual reaction-force information outputted from the virtual reaction-force information generating module.

Abstract: An automatic calibration method for a robot system comprises providing a ball-rod member including a connection rod and a sphere connected to a first end of the connection rod, fixing an opposite second end of the connection rod to an end execution tool mounted on a flange of a robot, and controlling the robot to move a center of the sphere to a same target point in a plurality of different poses under the guidance of a vision sensor. A transformation matrix of the center of the sphere with respect to a center of the flange is calculated based on pose data of the robot at the same target point. A transformation matrix of a center of the end execution tool with respect to the center of the flange is calculated according to a formula.

Abstract: A system and method of tracking an object and navigating an object tracking robot includes receiving tracking sensor input representing the object and an environment at multiple times, responsive to the tracking sensor input, calculating positions of the robot and the object at the multiple times, and using a computer implemented deep reinforcement learning (DRL) network trained as a function of tracking quality rewards and robot navigation path quality rewards, the DRL network being responsive to the calculated positions of the robot and the object at the multiple times to determine possible actions specifying movement of the object tracking robot from a current position of the robot and target, determine quality values (Q-values) for the possible actions, and select an action as a function of the Q-values. A method of training the DRL network is also included.

Abstract: A robot includes a base, a first arm that rotates around a first rotation axis, a second arm that rotates around a second rotation axis extending in a direction different than the first rotation axis, a third arm that rotates around a third rotation axis extending in a direction parallel to the second rotation axis, a first inertia sensor at the first arm, a second (a) inertia sensor at the third arm, a first angle sensor at a first drive source, a third angle sensor at a third drive source, and the drive sources rotate the respective arms. Angular velocities from the first inertia sensor and the first angle sensor are fed back to a first drive source control unit. Angular velocities from the second (a) inertia sensor and the third angle sensor are fed back to a second drive source control unit.