Unimation, Inc.

Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Staubli International Ag.

Bethlehem Steel Corporation

Connecticut Innovations, Inc.

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.

Pepsico, Inc.

Richard J Casler, Jr

Eimei M Onaga

Kenneth E Daggett

Richard A Johnson

Barrett L Booth

Leonard C Vercellotti

Rajan C Penkar

George Edward Riehm

John C Clymer

Carvel D Hoffman

Roy E Lancraft

Jeffrey R Davis

R Creighton Booth

Norman J Bergman

Vincent P Jalbert

John W Meadows

Kim Ngoc Trinh

Salvatore J Brogna

Burt Shulman

Booth Barrett L

Chi Sha

James A Hart

Joseph F Lynders

John S Eterno

Marcus D Nuncy

Lane L Woodland

A multi-axis motion controller includes a digital signal processor operable in a standalone mode to run a motion control application program for controlling motion along multiple axes is organized in a shared memory architecture and includes a serial I/O data system with DMA access to the memory for repeatedly moving input and output data directly between the memory and a serial data line. The motion controller may be utilized in connection with a cup lid dispenser for an automated drinkmaker having a pivotable shuttle arrangement for dispensing the bottommost lid in a stack, and a double lid sensor for determining if more than one lid has been dispensed.

Lid dispenser

Multi-axis motion controller and lid dispenser

Tomographic imaging of an inanimate object in which a fan-shaped beam of radiation is generated and divided into fan ray elements which are directed through a planar section of the object and detected by a set of detectors. Each detector produces a signal representative of the intensity of the radiation of a detected fan ray element and selected coordinates defining a cross-sectional image of the object are determined from the intensity signals of the detectors. The coordinates are stored and displayed on a display device. The detectors include a scintillation crystal which is provided with a half-solid cylinder of lead disposed on a side of the crystal.

Method and system for dimensional and weight measurements of articles of

An automated drinkmaker system which is designed to accept an input drink order, as from a cash register, and deliver the drink order, for different sizes and different flavors, with or without ice, completely finished in lidded containers to an output station. The automated drinkmaker system is designed for labor free processing of drink orders in high volume quick service or fast food establishments. The machine is designed around a carousel type of drink transporter which intermittently carries each drink to and from four circularly spaced stations, cup dispensing, ice dispensing, soda dispensing, lid application and marking. The carousel design allows a cup to be dispensed at one station while another cup is being filled with ice at a second station, and yet another is being filled with soda at a third station, etc. The use of carousels is extended to both cup and lid dispensing. The system is designed to interface with any commercially-available, portioning ice dispenser, and also to interface directly with a cash register system to enable the cashier to input a customer's order. At an output station, the cup is transferred from the carousel to a linear transporter elevator which carries the cup up and down through a lidding and marking procedure, after which the completed drink is transferred to an output conveyor.

Automated drinkmaker system

A pulse width modulation (PWM) control circuit provides for improved implementation of position, velocity and current feedback loops for digital servo control of a multi axis robot. The PWM circuit utilizes a single resistor for sensing joint motor drive current. Circuitry is also disclosed for reducing audible noise and motor heating in large servo motors used for joint arms operated at relatively low PWM frequencies by reducing the motor ripple current.

Digital robot control having pulse width modulator operable with reduced

The partitioning of circuitry and software on electronic boards in a robot control is arranged to enable respective controls for varied types of robots to be readily assembled and packaged with use of a few standard boards. The basic control system is formed from an arm interface (AIF) board and a torque processor (TP) board and a servo control (SCM) board. The AIF board has a VME bus terminated in multiple pin connectors for interconnection with the TP and SCM boards and any other boards or additional units to be included in a particular robot control. An AIF connector is also provided for TP board connection on a VMX bus. Robot controls with extended control performance are packaged by including additional boards. For example, the system control board includes a VME bus connector for connection to the AIF board to provide a robot control with higher control capacity. Input/output devices such as programmable controllers, peripherals such as CRTs, and supervisory computers can also be coupled to the control through AIF interconnectors. The AIF board contains robot dependent circuitry so that different AIF boards can be used to assemble different controls for different robots. For example, different board circuitry is used for absolute position feedback as opposed to incremental position feedback or for brush type DC motors are opposed to brushless DC motors.

Universal robot control board configuration

A digital control provides adaptive feedforward torque control for a robot having a plurality of arm joints. An electric motor drives each of the robot arm joints and a power amplifier supplies drive current to each motor under controlled operation. Each joint motor has feedback control loop means including position and velocity control loops driving a torque control loop in accordance with position commands to generate motor commands for controlling the associated power amplifier. The motion of said joint motor generates position and velocity feedback signals respectively for combination with the position and velocity commands to generate an error signal as a torque command for each of the torque control loops from the corresponding position and velocity control loops. Load force is sensed at the endmost robot joint. The actual load moment for each robot joint on the basis of the load force and the dynamic/kinematic data moment is computed for each robot joint on the basis of stored dynamic and kinematic data for the robot arm. The data and load moments are combined for each joint and applied as a feedforward torque for combination with the position and velocity errors in generating the torque command for each of the torque control loops. A feedback signal representative of the joint motor drive current is combined with the torque command to generate a torque error signal in each torque control loop.

Robot control system having adaptive feedforward torque control for

A modular digital robot control includes an electronic arm interface board provided with circuitry for performing robot arm dependent functions. Included are circuitry for generating power amplifier control signals in response to input voltage command signals and circuitry for processing and manipulating position, velocity and motor current feedback signals. An electronic torque processor board is provided with paired torque microprocessors for operating each of respective torque control loops for respective robot joint motors. The torque microprocessors generate the voltage commands in response to input torque commands and feedback motor current signals. An electronic servo control board is provided with paired position/velocity microprocessors for operating position and velocity control loops for the respective joint motors. The position/velocity microprocessors generate the torque commands in response to input position commands and feedback position and velocity signals. The servo control board further includes system resource facilities providing general support for the operation of the microprocessors and includes a DMC controller and two asynchronous controllers for communications interfacing with local input/output devices and other systems and devices. When executed in one of the position/velocity microprocessors, a stored motion program uses trajectory planning and interpolation to generate position commands in accordance with predefined moves set forth in a robot program. The servo control, torque processor and arm interface boards are interconnected to provide a complete basic control for the robot joint motors. An optional fourth electronic board can be connected to the basic control. It is called a system board and it includes paired system microprocessors that execute the motion program enabling the expanded control to provide extended robot control performance.

Modular robot control system

A digital control for a multiaxis robot includes position, velocity and torque controls that drive a motor voltage control loop. Pulse width modulated control signals operate power switches in a power bridge to control the current to each robot joint motor. A single resistor is connected in the bridge circuit to supply motor current feedback needed for control loop operation.

Digital robot control having an improved current sensing system for

A control system is provided for a workcell having a plurality of electric robots and a plurality of workcell equipment items in turn having a plurality of control and sensor devices associated therewith. Respective electronic robot controllers are disposed at respective workcell locations to operate robots as a part of the workcell process. Each robot controller has a floppy disk or other means for loading program data for one of the robot controllers. A first input/output control module is disposed at another workcell location and it has connected thereto as inputs a first group of the sensor devices and as outputs a first group of the control devices. Second and third input/output control modules are disposed at additional workcell locations and have connected thereto as inputs second and third groups of the sensor devices and as outputs second and third groups of the control devices. Additional input/output control modules are associated with the other robot controllers, and are similarly connected and placed in spaced workcell locations.

Robotic workcell control system having improved input/output interfacing

A digital position and velocity feedback system is provided for a multiaxis robot control and it employs an LSI chip to process incremental position signals for position change and velocity computations. At low speeds, velocity is computed from the reciprocal of elasped time. At higher speeds, velocity is computed from the rate at which incremental position signals are generated.

Position and velocity feedback system for a digital robot control

Circuitry is provided for applying a pulse width modulation (PWM) scheme to a brushless DC motor that operates as a robot axis drive. A pulse width modulation (PWM) scheme provides for digital implementation of robot control commands. For this purpose, it provides time stabilized current sampling synchronized to the sampling frequency of the position and velocity loops in the robot control. The brushless drive application circuitry provides for application of the PWM control outputs to commutate the motor energization from winding pair to winding pair.

Digital robot control providing pulse width modulation for a brushless

A digital robot control is provided with position/velocity and torque control loops with microprocessor servo controllers in each. The position/velocity servo controller includes two microprocessors that operate as a servo engine in providing position/velocity control for six robot axes. One microprocessor operates as a manager to perform data processing and coordination tasks supportive to position/velocity control. The other microprocessor performs position and velocity servo calculation tasks and operates as a slave processor to the position/velocity control manager. The programming for the position/velocity control sends manager position and other commands and position and velocity feedback from other control levels to the position/velocity calculator and sends torque commands received from the calculator to the next lower control level. The calculator employs position/velocity control algorithms in making torque command calculations.

Multiprocessor position/velocity servo control for multiaxis digital

A digital robot control includes a position/velocity microprocessor control and a torque microprocessor control for each of multiple robot axes. Digital position, velocity and motor current feedback signals are generated from motor sensor signals for use in making microprocessor control calculations. Another motor sensor generates an overlimit signal when motor temperature rises above a limit value to indicate excessive motor current. The torque microprocessor makes a backup motor energy calculation from the feedback motor current signal from each joint motor and compares the result to a stored motor energy limit. The robot is shut down if either limit is exceeded.

Growing community of inventors

Newtown, CT, United States of America

Richard J Casler, Jr