Abstract: An intense and athletic game employing skills typical of soccer played generally under the rules of handball or racquetball. The court game primarily requires use of the feet to advance the ball to the court front wall but also other parts of the body except extended hands and arms to receive the ball off a front court wall and control and ready it in preparation for returning it to the front wall without the ball contacting the floor outside the conditions allowed in normal court games such as racquetball. The game can be played using a small soccer ball but more ideally it is played with a smaller ball more conducive to court conditions and walls.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for conveying a printing mechanism over a surface of a substrate as the printing means creates indicia on the surface of the substrate. The present invention further provides a method and apparatus for conveying an optical sensor over the surface of the substrate so as to optically scan an image of indicia present on the surface of the substrate. In the preferred embodiment the invention comprises a compact shuttle assembly including a housing that accommodates a mobility subsystem, a sensor subsystem, a printer subsystem and a communications subsystem, each in cooperative communication with a control processor subsystem. In the preferred embodiment the mobility subsystem includes an electric motor rotationally coupled to a rolling member mounted under the housing. The shuttle assembly is guided over a top surface of substrate by selectively activating the mobility subsystem as the rolling member frictionally engages the top surface of the substrate.

Abstract: An experimental robot system using vision and a parallel jaw gripper acquires randomly oriented cylindrical workpieces piled in bins. Binary image analysis guides the gripper into multilayered piles of workpieces. Complementary information is provided by sensors on the gripper.

Abstract: A robot assembly for acquiring unorientated workpieces from a bin. A sensing system views the bin and collects data. A computer analyzes the data to determine candidate holdsites on the workpiece. The hand of the robot assembly then engages a workpiece at a selected holdsite. The workpiece is moved to a pose where the position and orientation of the workpiece are determined. After this determination, the workpiece may be disengaged, or moved to an intermediate or final goalsite. The method is applicable to workpieces that have six continuous unknown degrees of freedom. Furthermore, partial occlusion of the workpiece by the robot hand is allowed.

Abstract: A robot assembly for acquiring unorientated workpieces from a bin. A sensing system views the bin and collects data. A computer analyzes the data to determine candidate holdsites on the workpiece. The hand of the robot assembly then engages a workpiece at a selected holdsite. The workpiece is moved to a pose where the position and orientation of the workpiece are determined. After this determination, the workpiece may be disengaged, or moved to an intermediate or final goal site.

Abstract: Apparatus for acquiring individual workpieces from a supply of randomly oriented workpieces in a storage bin or the like. The apparatus includes a movably mounted head assembly having a gripper connected thereto by an intermediate flexible support. A sensor generates a control signal responsive to a contact force exerted by the gripper on a workpiece. The gripper operates to grip the workpiece contacted thereby. The flexible support is then retracted to lock the gripper against an abutment surface fixed relative to the head assembly. Operation of the gripper and/or movement of the head assembly may be controlled in response to said control signal.

Abstract: Visual system for determining position in space and/or orientation in three-dimensional space for purposes, for example, of directing or instructing an industrial robot to perform manipulative acts and apparatus employing the visual system. The system includes a portable object arbitrarily movable in three-dimensional space and possessing the discernible properties of position in space and/or orientation in space. One or more sensors extract visual information or image data from the portable object and convert the same to an electric signal or signals. A computer is connected to receive the signal or signals which are analyzed and, in the case of the industrial robot, the information obtained is used to prepare operating instructions.