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United States Patent 6,430,472
Boillot ,   et al. August 6, 2002
Robot feature tracking devices and methods

Abstract

Motorized slides are inserted between the end of a robot arm and a robot tool/sensor arrangement to provide additional positioning ability. A control unit of the slides cooperates with the control unit of the sensor to maintain the tool correctly positioned over a feature while the robot arm moves following a programmed path. The control unit of the sensor has look-ahead and additional buffers from which corrected information is determined to compensate for robot teaching inaccuracies, calibration and robot arm response errors. A sensor with two distinct probing zones is used to get information about the position of the tool tip and of the feature to assist in calibrating the sensor/tool relation.

Inventors: Boillot; Jean-Paul (Saint-Bruno, CA); Villemure; Denis (Longueuil, CA)
Assignee: Servo-Robot Inc. (Quebec, CA)
Appl. No.: 466927
Filed: December 20, 1999

Current U.S. Class: 700/245; 700/95; 700/259; 700/262; 318/568.1; 318/568.2; 318/568.11; 318/568.12; 318/568.18; 318/577; 219/121.61; 219/121.62; 219/121.63; 219/121.64; 219/121.82; 219/121.83; 901/41; 901/42
Intern'l Class: G06F 019/00
Field of Search: 700/245,259,95,114,254,262,62 318/568.2,568.13,568.15,568.18,568.16,568.11,568.1,577 701/23 901/41,42,47,9,4 414/5 219/121.61,121.84,121.11,121.31,121.63,121.64,121.82,121.83,125.1

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Other References

Sicard et al., Joint Recognition and Tracking for Robotic, 1989, IEEE, pp. 7174-7728.*
Kusachi et al., Tracking a Feature Point in Profile Sata Using an Articulated Object Model and Tuning Parameters Using the Genetic Algorithm, 1999, IEEE, pp. 145-150.*
Man et al., Approaches to Low Level Image Processgin for VisionGuided Seam Tracking system, 1988, IEEE, pp. 601-603.

Primary Examiner: Cuchlinski, Jr.; William A.
Assistant Examiner: Marc; McDieunel
Attorney, Agent or Firm: McDermott, Will & Emery
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