US 12,030,731 B2
Automated production work cell
Christopher Lalau Keraly, San Francisco, CA (US); Christipher A. Paulson, Belmont, CA (US); Nicholas L. Choi, South San Francisco, CA (US); Laura L. Sullivan, Redwood City, CA (US); Leo Keselman, Santa Clara, CA (US); Michael Benedict, Palo Alto, CA (US); Kent A. Evans, Cupertino, CA (US); and Scott M. Dellenbaugh, Fremont, CA (US)
Assigned to RIOS Intelligent Machines, Inc.
Filed by RIOS Intelligent Machines, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 21, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/480,962.
Prior Publication US 2023/0092690 A1, Mar. 23, 2023
Int. Cl. B65G 47/91 (2006.01); B25J 9/00 (2006.01); B25J 9/16 (2006.01); B25J 15/06 (2006.01)
CPC B65G 47/917 (2013.01) [B25J 9/0093 (2013.01); B25J 9/1697 (2013.01); B25J 15/0683 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A robotic work cell for performing a process on a plurality of objects that are supplied to the robotic work cell in a randomly arranged three-dimensional (3D) cluster, the robotic work cell comprising:
an object separating mechanism including a horizontal surface configured to receive at least a portion of the plurality of objects and a dynamic manipulator configured to apply a separating force such that the received portion forms a two-dimensional (2D) arrangement in which said objects are separated from each other;
a vision system configured to capture current image data from the horizontal surface, to identify a target object of the portion of objects forming the 2D arrangement using the current image data to generate location data operably describing a location of the target object on the horizontal surface, and generating rotational orientation data describing an rotational orientation of the target object;
a first robot mechanism including a first robotic arm that is controlled in accordance with the location data to move the target object from the horizontal surface to a designated hand-off location, and controlled in accordance with the rotational orientation data to rotate the target object into a designated hand-off orientation while moving the target object between the horizontal surface and the designated hand-off location;
a second robot mechanism including a second robotic arm including an end-shaft aligned in a vertical direction;
a carousel robotic end-tool having a central hub fixture that is fixedly connected to the end-shaft and at least one gripper mechanism connected to the central hub fixture such that said gripper mechanism including a pair of gripper structures; and
a processing device operably configured and positioned to perform said process on said target object when said target object is positioned in a designated processing location,
wherein the second robot mechanism is configured to manipulate the carousel robotic end-tool such that the gripper structures of the gripper mechanism are operably positioned in the designated hand-off location to grasp the target object when the target object is moved into the designated hand-off location by the first robot mechanism, and
wherein the second robot mechanism is configured to rotate said carousel robotic end-tool around said vertical direction such that said grasped target object is moved by said gripper mechanism into said designated processing location.