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Apparatus and method to enable a robot with vision to acquire, orient and transport workpieces

  • US 4,305,130 A
  • Filed: 05/29/1979
  • Issued: 12/08/1981
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1979
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A robot system for acquiring unorientated unmodified workpieces from a bin which comprises:

  • (a) a robot assembly which includesa hand to engage unorientated workpieces stored in the bin, at least some of the workpieces having uncertainty in three angular degrees of freedom for determining candidate holdsites and being structurally distinct from the sensing means; and

    an arm secured to the hand to translate and rotate the hand;

    (b) sensing means to provide data corresponding to the workpieces in the bin which data includes information based on the three angles of uncertainty and is sufficient to allow a candidate holdsite to be determined;

    (c) means to store data corresponding to the relative positions of the bin, the sensing means and the robot assembly, and the data provided by the sensing means; and

    (d) a computer communicating with the robot assembly, the sensing means and the means to store the data which includesmeans to determine the position of the candidate holdsites; and

    means to output data to the robot assembly to move the hand to engage the workpiece at the selective candidate holdsite and to remove subsequently the workpiece from the bin.

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