Abb Research Ltd.

Abb Schweiz Ag

Abb Ag

Björn Matthias

Tomas Groth

Fan Dai

Rolf Merte

Wolfgang Waldi

Sönke Kock

Roger Mellander

Arne Wahrburg

Richard Roberts

Hao Ding

Christoph Byner

Christoph Winterhalter

Sven Soetebier

Harald Staab

Roland Krieger

Rene Kirsten

A robot comprises at least one articulate arm having members including a base, an end effector and a plurality of links, wherein each link is movably connected to two others of said members by respective joints, at least one sensor for detecting an external force acting on any one of the members, and a controller for controlling movements of the joints, so as to move the end effector along a pre-programmed path. In case of the sensor detecting an external force, the controller is adapted to adopt a first release strategy for escaping from the external force, to evaluate whether the first strategy is successful, and if not, to adopt a second release strategy.

Collaborative robot

A defect detection system identifies defects in weld seams. An exemplary system includes a scanner device, mounted on a displacement device of a processing unit and which can be displaced by the unit over at least one weld seam that is to be examined. The scanner unit scans the weld seam using a predefinable frequency, each scanning sweep being correlated with a time signal. The time signal is used to record the point in time when at least one location containing defects is scanned. An analysis module determines the co-ordinates of the defects from the signals that are obtained by the scanning sweeps and stores the co-ordinates of the defects and transmits them to a localisation module. The localisation module determines the spatial arrangement of the defects of the weld seam by evaluating a speed profile of the displacement device during the scanning sweeps, the time signal and the co-ordinates.

Defect detection system for identifying defects in weld seams

An apparatus and method is disclosed for protection of a machine-controlled handling appliance having moving parts, having a safety sensor system for detection of objects in the working area of the handling appliance, having a safety controller which interacts with the handling appliance controller and in the process controls safety-relevant handling appliance functions as a function of signals from the safety sensor system. The safety sensor system has non-contacting proximity sensors so that a safety-relevant part of the working area of the handling appliance is covered by the detection areas of the proximity sensors.

Device and method for safeguarding a machine-controlled handling device

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Bad Schönborn, Germany

Björn Matthias