A work transfer system may include cassettes to house a work; a processing apparatus; and a robot to load and unload the work. The robot may include a base, a base link connected to the base, an arm link coupled to the base link, an arm connected to the arm link, and a hand connected to the arm. The base link and the arm link are controlled so that a center a coupling shaft of the arm link and the arm moves along a straight line. The cassettes are parallel to the straight line. A via point is specified for each quadrant of coordinate system and the robot moves between stages that are a target of loading or unloading of the work and uses the via point as a via point when moving.

A method is described for collision-free motion planning of a first manipulator with closed kinematics. The method includes defining a dynamic optimization problem, solving the optimization problem using a numerical approach, and determining a first movement path for the first manipulator based on the solution of the optimization problem. The dynamic optimization problem includes a cost function that weights states and control variables of the first manipulator, a dynamic that defines states and control variables of the first manipulator as a function of time, and at least one inequality constraint for a distance to collisions. Furthermore, the optimization problem includes at least one equality constraint for the closed kinematics.

A transfer method transfers a substrate between a transfer unit configured to hold and transfer the substrate and a substrate stage serving as a transfer destination or a transfer source of the substrate. The transfer method includes: acquiring positional information of the transfer unit and positional information of the substrate stage; determining whether or not there is a risk for the substrate to contact with the substrate stage, based on the acquired positional information of the transfer unit and positional information of the substrate stage; and when determined that there is a risk for the substrate to contact with the substrate stage, notifying the risk according to the determination at the determining.

A camera and a robot system are provided. The camera includes a camera body attached to a tip of a robot arm and a camera unit housed in the camera body. The camera unit has a plurality camera devices that are different in optical characteristics for imaging a workpiece.

The system, devices and methods disclosed herein enable autonomous and tele-operation of tele-operated robots for maintenance of a property around known and unknown obstacles. A method may include using an unmanned aerial vehicle for obtaining additional data relating to the property and obstacles within the property and plan a path around the obstacles using data from sensors on-board the tele-operated robot and the aerial image. A method may also provide optimization of total time needed for performing the property maintenance and the labor costs in situations where manual intervention is needed for navigating the tele-operated robot around obstacles on the property or for removing obstacles on the property.

The present disclosure provides a robot motion path planning method, apparatus, and terminal device. The method includes planning a planned path for a robot in a current scene using an open motion planning library (OMPL) database, setting a shortest ideal path as an initial ideal path, calculating a new path between the planned path and the initial ideal path using a dichotomy method, determining whether the new path meets an obstacle avoidance requirement and a structural constraint of the robot in the current scene, making the new path as the new planned path if yes, otherwise determining the new path as a new ideal path, optimizing the planned path using the dichotomy method iteratively until an error between the planned path and the ideal path is within a preset range, and determining the planned path as a motion path of the robot, thereby improving the motion efficiency.

A programmable motion robotic system is disclosed that includes a plurality of arm sections that are joined one to another at a plurality of joints to form an articulated arm, and a hose coupling an end effector of the programmable motion robotic system to a vacuum source. The hose is attached to at least one arm section of the articulated arm by a pass-through coupling that permits the hose to pass freely through the coupling as the plurality of arm sections are moved about the plurality of joints.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for planning a path of motion for a robot. In some implementations, a candidate path of movement is determined for each of multiple robots. A swept region, for each of the multiple robots, is determined that the robot would traverse through along its candidate path. At least some of the swept regions for the multiple robots is aggregated to determine amounts of overlap among the swept regions at different locations. Force vectors directed outward from the swept regions are assigned, wherein the force vectors have different magnitudes assigned according to the respective amounts of overlap of the swept regions at the different locations. A path for a particular robot to travel is determined based on the swept regions and the assigned magnitudes of the forces.

A method for predicting collision of a machining path includes: a step of reading an NC program; a step of translating a plurality of block information in the NC program; a step of, prior to perform interpolation upon each of the plurality of block information, calculating a safety distance of a next block information with respect to a block information to be interpolated; a step of searching a number of individual block information having an accumulated distance greater than or equal to the safety distance; and a step of performing an anti-collision detection upon each of the individual block information contributing the accumulated distance. In addition, a system for predicting collision of a machining path is also provided.

The disclosure relates to a system and/or method to create or otherwise define one or more virtual barriers for confining or controlling an autonomous robotic device substantially within one or more portion of one or more selected working areas, for example, to prohibit entrance of certain areas. The system and/or method may use a set of beacon transmitters that emit time-stamped signals, which are received by one or more robots and used to calculate the robotic device's distance from such beacons.