Automated production work cell

US12030731B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• RIOS Intelligent Machines, Inc.

Inventors

• Christopher Lalau Keraly · San Francisco, US
• Christipher A. Paulson · Belmont, US
• Nicholas L. Choi · South San Francisco, US
• Laura L. Sullivan · Redwood City, US
• Leo Keselman · Menlo Park, US
• Michael Alexander Benedict · Louisville, US
• Kent Evans · Sunnyvale, US
• Scott M. Dellenbaugh · Fremont, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 21, 2021
• Grant date: Jul 9, 2024
• Expiry date: Sep 1, 2042

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G05B2219/45063
• WIPO field: Handling
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A robotic work cell uses an object separating mechanism to disperse bulk objects into a 2D arrangement on a horizontal surface and uses a vision system to generate pick-up (positional) data and rotational orientation data for each sequentially selected target object of the 2D arrangement. A pick-and-place robot mechanism uses the positional data to pick-up each target object and uses the rotational orientation data to reorientate the target object during transfer to a designated hand-off location. A carousel-type robotic end-tool disposed on a 4-axis object-processing robot mechanism rotates a gripper mechanism around a vertical axis to move the target object from the hand-off location to a designated processing location, where an associated processing device performs a desired process (e.g., label application) on the target object. In one embodiment the gripper mechanism is selectively rotatable around a horizontal axis to facilitate processing on opposing surfaces of the target object.