X Development LLC

Google Inc.

Miguel Rivas

Jeffrey Bingham

Advait Jain

Lee Harris Magnusson

Rob Wilson

Justine Rembisz

An example implementation includes operating a robotic system in an environment. The implementation also includes detecting, using one or more sensors of the robotic system, a surface marker at a first location in the environment. The implementation also includes determining that the detected surface marker indicates the presence of an object having a first surface attribute at the first location, wherein the first surface attribute is one of a plurality of predefined surface attributes. The implementation also includes determining one or more tasks that correspond to the first surface attribute in response to determining that the surface marker indicates the object having the first surface attribute. The implementation also includes causing the robotic system to perform the one or more tasks with respect to the object.

Surface markers and methods for use

An encoder is provided that comprises a disk to rotate about an axis. The encoder also comprises a first index mark and a second index mark on the disk. A first orientation of the disk associated with the first index mark is at an offset angle to a second orientation of the disk associated with the second index mark. The encoder also comprises a detector to provide an index signal responsive to an index mark being aligned with the detector. The device also comprises a controller to receive a first index signal and a second index signal from the detector, determine an angle of rotation of the disk between provision of the first index signal and provision of the second index signal, and identify a defect in the encoder based on the angle of rotation being different from the offset angle.

Devices and methods for a rotary encoder

A device is provided that comprises a hardware segment and an actuator to adjust a position of the segment within a range of positions. The device also comprises an encoder to rotate about an encoder axis responsive to the actuator adjusting the position. The device also comprises data storage that includes a dataset indicating offset angles between a reference configuration and a plurality of configurations of the encoder. The device also comprises a controller to cause the actuator to adjust the position to an end of the range of positions, responsively identify a range of encoder positions of the encoder that corresponds to the range of positions of the segment, modify the dataset such that the reference configuration corresponds to an end of the range of encoder positions, and determine a mapping between the offset angles indicated by the modified dataset and the range of positions of the hardware segment.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Miguel Rivas