Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7295891 | Method and device for controlling movements in the case of manipulators In a method for controlling the movement of a manipulator associated with an interpretation of a given point sequence of poses (positions and orientations) by splines, the motion components are separately parameterized. Thus, marked, subsequent changes to the orient... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7292913 | Articulated robot In the articulated robot, types of teaching a moving track of the robot can be optionally selected. The articulated robot comprises: a switch for manually selecting a moving axis to move an arm section along the selected axis; a manual pulse generator generating pul... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7292910 | Method and device for machining a workpiece A method for machining workpieces by means of a multiaxial manipulator, such as an industrial robot, with a tool moved proportionally by a control unit of the manipulator and which can perform characteristic movements with several degrees of freedom is characterized... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7248941 | Automatic programming method and device An automatic programming method includes a first processing including detecting a turning surface having a largest diameter in the product model, and determining a central axis of rotation on the turning surface detected as a turning axis of the product model; a sec... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7245990 | Industrial robot A robot control unit for controlling a robot mechanism unit constantly detects the status of a robot and stores it as robot status data. An operation command input by voice from a head set is converted into character data by a voice/character data conversion device,... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7236854 | Method and a system for programming an industrial robot A method and a system for use in connection with programming of an industrial robot. The programming includes teaching the robot a path having a number of waypoints located on or in the vicinity of an object to be processed by the robot. The system includes elements... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7167194 | Printing a code on a product A method for printing is described. The method includes providing a printing system for printing a code on a product moving in a direction. The code is constructed from a plurality of pixels in a first data set indicating the positions of the pixels and generates a ... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7136723 | Robot controller A robot controller for teaching a robot with high efficiency. The robot controller including command storage unit (21) where a movement command and a work command are stored, command identifying unit (24) for discriminating between the movement and wor... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7127323 | Automatic programming method and device An automatic programming method includes a first processing including detecting a turning surface having a largest diameter in the product model, and determining a central axis of rotation on the turning surface detected as a turning axis of the product model; a sec... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7054715 | System, method, and program for robot control System and method for allowing execution of control over robot hardware other than specific robot hardware by using control software that does not have features to be applied to the robot hardware other than the specific hardware designed for control. Control softwa... | 05/30/2006 |
| 6973353 | Programmable controller for controlling an output state A programmable controller for controlling one or more outputs based on position indicated from a position transducer. The controller includes an interface that converts the transducer signals into a change in position, a transducer position counter that accumulates ... | 12/06/2005 |
| 6970764 | Machining program producing apparatus An input data check control portion, which compares input data with a decimal point check target word (step 64, 65) and, issues a warning when the input data is the decimal point check target word and the numerical value data of the input data is not given a ... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6946812 | Method and apparatus for providing force feedback using multiple grounded actuators An apparatus and method for interfacing the motion of a user-manipulable object with a computer system includes a user object physically contacted or grasped by a user. A 3-D spatial mechanism is coupled to the user object, such as a stylus or a medical instrument, ... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6903527 | Servo controller A switch is turned on by a learning control start command from a master control unit, and the positional deviation at respective cycles is read in. Correction data read out from a learning memory is added to the positional deviation, and the result is filtered by ba... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6889118 | Hardware abstraction layer for a robot Methods and apparatus that provide a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) for a robot are disclosed. A HAL can reside as a software layer or as a firmware layer residing between robot control software and underlying robot hardware and/or an operating system for the hard... | 05/03/2005 |
| 6861814 | Control parameter automatic adjustment apparatus A control parameter automatic adjustment apparatus acquires a movable range of a drive shaft of a drive system, and automatically generates a test movement program to automatically adjust a control parameter to the drive system even though the movable range changes.... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6859683 | Integrated robotic cell An integrated robotic cell having robot and series of sensors is able to process a component as desired by an operator using an interactive interface display. The integrated robotic cell includes a robotic arm connected a central processor unit as well as a series o... | 02/22/2005 |
| 6853878 | Robot controller A robot controller for teaching a robot with high efficiency. The robot controller including command storage unit (21) where a movement command and a work command are stored, command identifying unit (24) for discriminating between the movement and wor... | 02/08/2005 |
| 6771037 | Actuator and family of actuators for a seat and method of manufacturing such an actuator The invention relates to an actuator (22) for a seat, of the type comprising, on the one hand, a body (40) and a control element (38) displaceable relative to the body (40), under the control of an actuating motor (36), and, on the... | 08/03/2004 |
| 6717382 | Method of connecting a mobile control and/or monitoring unit to a machine and a control and/or monitoring unit for same The invention relates to a method of connecting a mobile, electronic control and/or monitoring unit (9) to at least one machine or at least one machine component in a group or a plurality of machines (2) or machine components to be controlled and/or mo... | 04/06/2004 |
| 6684131 | Device and method for controlling robot A robot controller capable of minimizing an increase in the tact time during work, reducing changes in joint axes of the robot, thereby providing the structure with long mechanical life. The robot controller i) stores a plurality of movement data formed o... | 01/27/2004 |
| 6642686 | Swivel arm with passive actuators A swivel arm includes a fixing device for an instrument and at least one pivot, such that the swivel arm can be moved. At least one sensor on at least one pivot detects the position and/or movement of the at least one pivot. A controllable, passive actuat... | 11/04/2003 |
| 6466844 | Robot, robot system, and robot control method A robot for synchronizing with other robots without raising costs, a robot system, and a robot control method. The robot includes a storage portion (11) in which an operating program for the robot is stored, a main arithmetic portion (12) for analyzing th... | 10/15/2002 |
| 6459958 | Operation data display device for robot An operation data display device for a robot allowing an operator to recognize operation data on a plurality of operations performed by the robot at a time. When an arc start command is read out from a taught operation program by the robot controller, a w... | 10/01/2002 |
| 6427098 | Method for controlling pivoting machine member A method and apparatus for control of pivoting machine members propelled by linear actuators so as to permit coordinated motion of the pivoting members with translating machine members. Position commands for the pivoting machine members are given in angul... | 07/30/2002 |
| 6400998 | Generation of measurement program in NC machining and machining management based on the measurement program A method and apparatus for NC machining management based on a measurement program, wherein a machining shape at an arbitrary machining stage is determined by an NC program, a geometric element or a geometric model is generated, and a measurement program i... | 06/04/2002 |
| 6377012 | Servo system controller A servo system controller which has a sequence controlling section 2 and a servo controlling section 3, employs not only a current position of a servo motor but also other servo control data or a sequencer device as comparison data, and executes a compari... | 04/23/2002 |
| 6327518 | Off-line teaching apparatus An off-line teaching apparatus includes an operation command-receiving device for receiving an operation command inputted via an input/output port from a key input device or a coordinate input device and successively storing the operation command in a buf... | 12/04/2001 |
| 6300738 | Method and apparatus for generating reference values for a motion control loop in an industrial control system A method of controlling a motor comprises providing a motion control system and causing the shaft of the motor to move from an initial state to a new state, such as from an initial position or velocity to a new position or velocity. Coefficients for each ... | 10/09/2001 |
| 6298283 | Industrial robot An industrial robot capable of preventing re-collision after colliding with an obstacle. Disturbing torque exerted on each servomotor for a robot axis is estimated by its associated disturbance estimating observer. When a hand attached to an end of a robo... | 10/02/2001 |
| 6282460 | Method for programming a robot using a pendant controller A method for preventing collisions between robots by causing a first robot to stop or pause so that a second robot may safely pass by or perform a specified operation. Once the second robot has completed its operation then the first robot is allowed to re... | 08/28/2001 |
| 6259224 | Electronic cancellation of DC motor noise An active attenuation system for a DC motor which yields global vibration reduction of slot or other motor induced tonals at the plate on which the motor is mounted without modifying the construction of the motor. The system comprises one or more vibratio... | 07/10/2001 |
| 6249102 | Method of controlling a multi-axis machine tool A method for the control of a multi-axis machine tool, in particular for the regulation of the position of the individual axes as a function of at least one other axis or external parameters. The method includes providing a coupling function for each axis... | 06/19/2001 |
| 5991510 | Removable memory device to store robotic application and configuration data A robot drive has operating and configuration parameters at an installation location stored in an easily removable storage device on the drive, or nearby, so that special data, such as that associated with arm design and system layout, including taught st... | 11/23/1999 |
| 5977738 | Method and system for contolling the position of a servo motor in vehicle speed control systems for various operation conditions A method and system for accurately controlling a position of a servo motor in a vehicle speed control system for various operation conditions includes predetermined parameters of a polynomial which define desired positions of a servo motor for various veh... | 11/02/1999 |
| 5963003 | Method and apparatus for asynchronous multi-axis servo path planning A motion controller includes an input for receiving data corresponding to moves in a cycle of a multi-axis machine. The controller controls electric motors of the machine in accordance with positions set forth in a path planning table. The path planning t... | 10/05/1999 |
| 5906761 | Method of determining weld path for a robot welder A method for preventing collisions between robots by causing a first robot to stop or pause so that a second robot may safely pass by or perform a specified operation. Once the second robot has completed its operation then the first robot is allowed to re... | 05/25/1999 |
| 5831407 | Numerically controlling apparatus for the machine tool A machine tool is controlled in response to a numerical control program that is indicative of tool path data. A user selects a working region on which the machine tool will operate. A portion of the tool path data that corresponds to the selected working ... | 11/03/1998 |
| 5828197 | Mechanical interface having multiple grounded actuators An apparatus and method for interfacing the motion of a user-manipulable object with a computer system includes a user object physically contacted or grasped by a user. A 3-D spatial mechanism is coupled to the user object, such as a stylus or a medical i... | 10/27/1998 |
| 5773950 | Program creating method for uniform-shape machining A machining program for machining a workpiece into predetermined shape in a specific machining positions of the workpiece is created in advance. The position of the center of rotation and a rotation plane are specified so that a point representing the mac... | 06/30/1998 |
