Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Rie Takahashi

Katsuya Watanabe

Takashi Kishimoto

Tohru Nakamura

Yoshihiko Matsukawa

Osamu Mizuno

Soichiro Fujioka

Akinobu Okuda

Tsuyoshi Tojo

Hiroshige Ishibashi

Mamoru Shoji

Hiroyuki Yamaguchi

Hideshi Ishihara

Harumitsu Miyashita

Takahiro Nagai

Takashi Yumiba

Takeharu Yamamoto

Mizuho Sakakibara

Yoshihiro Kanda

Hiroyuki Uematsu

Shoichi Kobayashi

Tatsuo Sakai

Hajime Kawano

Ryosuke Murai

Shintaro Kinoshita

Yukihiko Kitano

Kenji Fujiune

Tetsuya Shihara

Takanobu Tanimoto

Masayoshi Shioya

Makoto Gotou

A manipulator is provided with an arm, an arm, a holding section, a first joint section pivotally interconnecting the arm and the arm, a second joint section pivotally interconnecting the arm and the holding section, a first joint driving section capable of driving the first joint section, a second joint driving section capable of driving the second joint section, a member specifying section for specifying one of the arms which has a possibility of collision with an obstacle or which has collided with the obstacle, and a control device for controlling the first joint driving section and the second joint driving section to pivotally move the one of the arms specified by the member specifying section in a direction away from the obstacle, and pivotally move the other of the arms in a direction toward the obstacle.

Manipulator and method of controlling the same

A structure is provided with a first member at a base end side, a third member at a leading end side, a second member arranged between the first and third members, and a coupling force generator for generating a first coupling force for pressing an end surface of the first member and that of the second member against each other and a second coupling force for pressing an end surface of the second member and that of the third member against each other. In this structure, the first and third members are relatively displaced upon the application of an external force larger than a coupling force generated between the end surface of the first member and that of the second member by the first coupling force, whereas the second and third members are relatively displaced upon the application of an external force larger than a coupling force generated between the end surface of the second member and that of the first member by the second coupling force.

Structure, manipulator and structure control system

A manipulator includes a main unit movable to a specified target position, an arm unit rotatably provided on the main unit, and a posture controller. The posture controller controls the posture of the arm unit so that a front surface of the arm unit facing forward in a moving direction of the main unit is not orthogonal to the moving direction of the main unit when the movement of the main unit is performed. The arm unit may be inclined obliquely backward with respect to a moving direction of the main unit when the main unit is moved to a specified target position.

Manipulator and manipulator posture control method

A medicine inspection support system, which provides a reliable inspection of medicine preparation, includes a person authentication unit, a preliminary inspection unit, an inspection unit, and an inspector check unit. The person authentication unit identifies a preliminary inspector who performs a preliminary inspection of medicine preparation, and an inspector who performs an inspection of the medicine preparation. The preliminary inspection unit certifies that the preliminary inspector has performed the preliminary inspection of the medicine preparation. The inspection unit certifies that the inspector has performed the inspection of the medicine preparation. The inspector check unit permits the inspection unit to certify completion of the inspection when determined that the inspector is a different person from the preliminary inspector.

Medicine examination support system

A robot arm has a drive gear that has a shaft, a gear frame being capable of turning about the shaft of the drive gear, a first follower gear being capable of turning, in synchronization with the drive gear, about a shaft fixed to the gear frame, in a direction opposite to the turning direction of the drive gear, a transmission control mechanism that is capable of locking the first follower gear to the drive gear, an arm that moves in synchronization with the first follower gear, and a collision detection unit that is capable of detecting a collision between the arm and an obstacle. The transmission control mechanism unlocks the follower gear from the drive gear in response to detection, by the collision detection unit, of a collision between the arm and the obstacle. The robot arm enables quick cushioning of the impact force of the collision.

Robot arm

After an optical disk drive according to the present invention has been loaded with an optical disk and before the operation of recognizing the type of the given disk is finished, the drive presumes one of multiple types of candidate optical disks, from/on which data is readable and writable using a light beam with the shortest wavelength among the candidate disks, to be the disk being driven by the motor now and gets the beam for the presumed type of disk radiated from a light source (Step (A)). Next, the drive gets the disk spun at a rotational velocity that realizes a linear velocity equal to or higher than a standardized normal velocity when data is read from the presumed type of disk (Step (B)). Thereafter, the drive starts a focus control in a situation where the spot of the beam being formed on the disk is moving on the disk at the linear velocity equal to or higher than the normal velocity (Step (C)). And then the drive performs the operation of recognizing the type of the disk by the light beam reflected from the disk under the focus control (Step (D)).

Optical disk drive for discriminating types of optical disks

An optical disk drive according to the present invention has the ability to read data from multiple types of optical disks, each of which includes at least one information storage layer. The drive includes: a driving mechanism, which is loaded with a selected one of the optical disks of the multiple types and which rotates the optical disk; an optical pickupfor irradiating the optical disk, which has been loaded into the driving mechanism, with a converged light beam, thereby generating an electrical signal based on light that has been reflected from the optical disk; and a control section (ODC) for controlling operations of the driving mechanismand the optical pickup. The control sectionincludes a right/wrong side determining section for determining, by reference to the electrical signal generated by the optical pickup, whether or not the optical diskhas been loaded into the driving mechanismwith the other surface opposed to the optical pickup

Optical disk unit and driving method therefor

Autonomous mobile robot

An optical disk apparatus according to the present invention is an optical disk apparatus for performing at least one of: recording data to a plurality of types of optical disks including a recordable optical disk and a read-only optical disk which are produced according to the BD specifications; and reproducing data from the optical disks. This apparatus includes: a means () for irradiating a management areaof an optical diskwith a light beam while not performing tracking control, and generating a track position signal (push-pull TE or phase difference TE) from light which is reflected by the management area; and a disk determination means for determining, based on the track position signal obtained from the management area, whether the optical diskmounted in the optical disk apparatus is a recordable optical disk or a read-only optical disk.

Optical disc judgment method and optical disc device

The optical disk drive of the present invention can read data from multiple types of optical disks and includes: a motor for spinning a given optical disk; at least one light source for radiating light beams with multiple different wavelengths; at least one lens for converging each light beam onto the disk; a spherical aberration correcting section that can change the spherical aberration states of the beam; and a control section for controlling the operations of the motor, light source, lens and spherical aberration correcting section. The control section includes a disk type recognizing section that irradiates the disk with a light beam using the light source and the lens, thereby recognizing the type of the disk. The recognizing section performs the recognition by reference to first and second signal waveforms that have been generated based on the light beams reflected from the optical disk when the spherical aberration correcting section sets the spherical aberration states of the light beam to first and second states, respectively.

Optical disk device with disk type recognition

An information medium apparatus for performing at least one of a recording operation and a reproduction operation for the information medium, includes: a determination section for determining whether or not a cartridge for accommodating the information medium has been previously opened; and a control section for performing a start processing procedure corresponding to the information medium. When it is determined that the cartridge has not been previously opened, the control section performs a first start processing procedure for starting the information medium by using a blue laser. When it is determined that the cartridge has been previously opened, the control section determines whether or not the information medium is an information medium for which a start processing procedure is to be performed by using a laser other than the blue laser.

Information medium apparatus and information medium starting method

A method for recognizing at least two types of optical discs, which are associated with multiple different numerical apertures, includes the step of setting the numerical aperture of a focusing mechanism equal to a first one of the multiple different numerical apertures. The focusing mechanism is used to focus a light beam on a data storage layer of a given optical disc. The first numerical aperture is smaller than any of the other numerical apertures. The method further includes the step of recognizing the type of the given optical disc by the first numerical aperture that has been selected in the step of setting the numerical aperture.

Method and apparatus for recognizing optical discs, optical disc drive, and method and apparatus for distinguishing data storage layer

An optical disc drive is used to read and/or write data from/on an optical disc having a data storage layer. The drive corrects electrical offset while reading and/or writing data. The drive updates a correction value based on an electrical offset detected at correcting operation or a value derived using electrical offset values that has been detected and stored, without detecting an electrical offset at correcting operation. Therefore, the optical disc drive can correct the electrical offset less often.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Rie Takahashi