General Electric Company

Transportation IP Holdings, LLC

Ge Global Sourcing LLC

Huan Tan

Charles Burton Theurer

Balajee Kannan

Romano Patrick

John Michael Lizzi

Douglas Roy Forman

Omar Al Assad

Arpit Jain

Shiraj Sen

Ghulam Ali Baloch

Yonatan Gefen

Li Zhang

Mauricio Castillo-Effen

Steven Robert Gray

Tai-Peng Tian

Viktor Holovashchenko

Yang Zhao

Todd William Danko

Yi Xu

Lynn Ann DeRose

Jilin Tu

Yakov Polishchuk

Justin Michael Foehner

John Robert Hoare

Gyeong Woo Cheon

Weston Blaine Griffin

Frederick Wilson Wheeler

Guiju Song

Xiao Bian

Ying Mao

Shubao Liu

Judith Ann Guzzo

Eric Michael Gros

Shuai Li

Pramod Sharma

Bernard Patrick Bewlay

Mark Bradshaw Kraeling

Guanghua Wang

Brandon Stephen Good

Shaopeng Liu

Guangliang Zhao

Ching-Ling Huang

Weina Ge

Roberto Silveira Silva Filho

Raju Venkataramana

Bo Wang

Alex Tepper

Ana Dasilva

Isabella Heukensfeldt Jansen

Michael VanderLinden

Norman Wellings

Mark Bachman

Lynn Ann Derose

A control system includes a task manager that can determine capability requirements to perform a task on the target object. The task has an associated series of sub-tasks, with the sub-tasks having one or more capability requirements. The task manager selects and assigns a first sequence of sub-tasks to a first robotic machine that has a first set of capabilities and operates according to a first mode of operation. The task manager selects and assigns a second sequence of sub-tasks to a second robotic machine that has a second set of capabilities and operates according to a second mode of operation. The task manager selects the first robotic machine based on the first set of capabilities and the first mode of operation of the first robotic machine, and selects the second robotic machine based on the second set of capabilities and the second mode of operation.

Control system with task manager

A system includes a robotic vehicle having a propulsion and a manipulator configured to perform designated tasks. The system also including a local controller disposed onboard the robotic vehicle and configured to receive input signals from an off-board controller. Responsive to receiving an input signal for moving in an autonomous mode, the local controller is configured to move the robotic vehicle toward one of the different final destinations by autonomously and iteratively determining a series of waypoints until the robotic vehicle has reached the one final destination. For each iteration, the local controller is configured to determine a next waypoint between a current location of the robotic vehicle and the final destination, determine movement limitations of the robotic vehicle, and generate control signals in accordance with the movement limitations.

Control system and method for robotic motion planning and control

A system includes a first robotic machine having a first set of capabilities for interacting with a target object on stationary equipment; a second robotic machine having a second set of capabilities for interacting with the target object; and a task manager that can determine capability requirements to perform a task on the target object. The task has an associated series of sub-tasks. The task manager can assign a first sequence of sub-tasks for performance by the first robotic machine based on the first set of capabilities and a second sequence of sub-tasks for performance by the second robotic machine based on the second set of capabilities. The first and second robotic machines can coordinate performance of the first sequence of sub-tasks by the first robotic machine with performance of the second sequence of sub-tasks by the second robotic machine to accomplish the task.

A robotic system includes a controller configured to obtain image data from one or more optical sensors and to determine one or more of a location and/or pose of a vehicle component based on the image data. The controller also is configured to determine a model of an external environment of the robotic system based on the image data and to determine tasks to be performed by components of the robotic system to perform maintenance on the vehicle component. The controller also is configured to assign the tasks to the components of the robotic system and to communicate control signals to the components of the robotic system to autonomously control the robotic system to perform the maintenance on the vehicle component.

Integrated robotic system and method for autonomous vehicle maintenance

The present disclosure is related to methods and systems for controlling a snake-arm robot. The method includes receiving real-time image data associated with an operating environment or a location of a workpiece from optical sensor(s) mounted on a robot head of the robot; receiving input data describing a desired pose of the robot head; computing and translating a desired displacement of the robot head; computing a position of each of the links of the snake-arm robot to follow motion of the robot head, a current position of each the links, and data required to move joints connecting the links to move the robot to the desired pose; generating movement instructions; and transmitting the movement instructions to a drive motor associated with an introduction device or controllers associated with servo-motors operably connected to joints connecting the links of the snake-arm causing the robot head to move to the desired pose.

Utilizing optical data to control operation of a snake-arm robot

A system for polishing a surface of a component includes a motorized apparatus including a body, a drive system coupled to the body, and an arm including a proximal end coupled to the body and a distal end opposite the proximal end. The motorized apparatus further includes a tool coupled to the distal end of the arm. The tool is configured to polish the surface of the component. The motorized apparatus also includes an actuator coupled to the arm. The system also includes a controller configured to position the tool relative to the component by positioning at least one of the body and the arm relative to the component to reach the target area on the component while maintaining a distance between the tool and the body that is less than a threshold distance. The threshold distance is less than a full reach of the arm and is determined to prevent vibrations of the tool and the arm from exceeding a predefined level.

Systems and methods for polishing component surfaces using polishing tool mounted on motorized apparatus

A method of robot autonomous navigation includes capturing an image of the environment, segmenting the captured image to identify one or more foreground objects and one or more background objects, determining a match between one or more of the foreground objects to one or more predefined image files, estimating an object pose for the one or more foreground objects by implementing an iterative estimation loop, determining a robot pose estimate by applying a robot-centric environmental model to the object pose estimate by implementing an iterative refinement loop, associating semantic labels to the matched foreground object, compiling a semantic map containing the semantic labels and segmented object image pose, and providing localization information to the robot based on the semantic map and the robot pose estimate. A system and a non-transitory computer-readable medium are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for autonomous robot navigation

In accordance with certain implementations of the present approach, a reduced, element-by-element, data set is transmitted between a robot having a sensor suite and a control system remote from the robot that is configured to display a representation of the environment local to the robot. Such a scheme may be useful in allowing a human operator remote from the robot to perform an inspection using the robot while the robot is on-site with an asset and the operator is off-site. In accordance with the present approach, an accurate representation of the environment in which the robot is situated is provided for the operator to interact with.

Dynamically representing a changing environment over a communications channel

A system for detecting the presence of an anomaly within a component includes a motorized apparatus configured to move around the component. The system also includes an excitation device and a camera mounted to the motorized apparatus. The excitation device is configured to emit an excitation signal toward the component to cause the anomaly within the component to generate a detectable reactionary thermal signal in response to the excitation signal. The camera is configured to capture thermal images of the component. The thermal images include the detectable reactionary thermal signal and indicate the presence of the anomaly within the component. The system further includes a controller communicatively coupled to the excitation device and the camera. The controller is configured to receive and analyze the thermal images to detect the presence of the anomaly within the component. The controller is configured to adjust one or more operating parameters of the system to affect a characteristic of the detectable reactionary signal based on the thermal images.

Thermographic inspection system mounted on motorized apparatus and methods of using same

A system includes a first robotic machine having a first set of capabilities for interacting with a target object; a second robotic machine having a second set of capabilities for interacting with the target object; and a task manager that can determine capability requirements to perform a task on the target object. The task has an associated series of sub-tasks. The task manager can assign a first sequence of sub-tasks for performance by the first robotic machine based on the first set of capabilities and a second sequence of sub-tasks for performance by the second robotic machine based on the second set of capabilities. The first and second robotic machines can coordinate performance of the first sequence of sub-tasks by the first robotic machine with performance of the second sequence of sub-tasks by the second robotic machine to accomplish the task.

Methods and systems for controlling a snake-arm robot. In an embodiment, a server computer receives real-time image data associated with at least one of an operating environment and a location of a workpiece from an optical sensor mounted on a robot head of a snake-arm robot, and receives, input data describing a desired pose of the robot head from a user device. The server computer then computes a desired velocity of the robot head using an image Jacobian, translates the desired velocity of the robot head into incremental displacement data and rotation data within a control cycle, computes a position of each of a plurality of links comprising a snake-arm of the snake-arm robot to follow motion of the robot head, computes a current position of each of the plurality of links utilizing a forward dynamics model, and computes force and torque data required to move at least one of a plurality of joints connecting the links to move the snake-arm robot to the desired pose. The method also includes generating movement instructions based on the force and torque data, and transmitting the movement instructions to at least one of a drive motor associated with an introduction device and a plurality of controllers associated with servo-motors operably connected to joints connecting the links of the snake arm causing the robot head to move to the desired pose.

Utilizing optical data to dynamically control operation of a snake-arm robot

A sensor calibration system includes a plurality of sensors and a user interface configured to receive user-provided locations of at least two sensors of the plurality of sensors. The sensor calibration system further includes a motorized apparatus including a drive system, at least one detector, and a localization system. The sensor calibration system further includes a controller communicatively coupled to the user interface and the motorized apparatus. The controller is configured to determine a whether each of at least two sensors is a key sensor based on the user-provided locations. The controller is configured to determine a path for the motorized apparatus based on the user-provided locations. The controller is further configured to determine a position of each sensor based on the location of the motorized apparatus when each sensor is detected by the at least one detector. The controller is further configured to relate the location of the motorized apparatus and the position of each sensor to a common origin.

Systems and methods including motorized apparatus for calibrating sensors

A method and system, the method including receive image data representations of a set of images of a physical asset; receive a data model of at least one asset, the data model of each of the at least one assets including a semantic description of the respective modeled asset and at least one operation associated with the respective modeled asset; determine a match between the received image data and the data model of one of the at least one assets based on a correspondence therebetween; generate, for the data model determined to be a match with the received image data, an operation plan based on the at least one operation included in matched data model; execute, in response to the generation of the operation plan, the generated operation plan by the physical asset.

Systems and methods of 3D scene segmentation and matching for robotic operations

Growing community of inventors

Clifton Park, NY, United States of America

Huan Tan