초록 ▼

A hand-held controller wand including three angular rate measurement sensors is coupled to a computational device for translating roll, pitch, and yaw data into translation and rotation signals or commands that effect the movement of an external device\s control point, which may be an end effector o

A hand-held controller wand including three angular rate measurement sensors is coupled to a computational device for translating roll, pitch, and yaw data into translation and rotation signals or commands that effect the movement of an external device\s control point, which may be an end effector of a robot. A transformation matrix is continually updated from the angular rate information obtained from the hand-held controller. This matrix is used to update a direction vector. A value may be stored in the computation device corresponding to a predetermined speed of movement. A button or other convenient control allows the operator to control translational movement of the end effector or other controlled device in a direction defined by the orientation of the hand held controller at the predetermined speed, thus providing an intuitive control input for real-time direction and programming of movement. Because the present orientation of the wand is also known to the computational device, rotational movement may also be directed. Translation and orientation motion input may be provided simultaneously or separately, in accordance with the programming and/or under control of the computational device. The computational device translates the computed direction vector into signals corresponding to commands that depend upon the device being controlled; such translation is especially suited for robot controllers, because such controllers accept simple movement commands that may readily be computed from the direction vectors. However, the controller is also useful for other applications in which motion information is required, including the motion of real objects and virtual reality.

대표청구항 ▼

A system for controlling a movement of a three-dimensional workpiece in space, comprising: (a) freely moveable means for detecting motion in a plurality of directions and for generating signals representative of said motion; (b) means, coupled to said means for detecting motion, for acquiring said s

A system for controlling a movement of a three-dimensional workpiece in space, comprising: (a) freely moveable means for detecting motion in a plurality of directions and for generating signals representative of said motion; (b) means, coupled to said means for detecting motion, for acquiring said signals representative of said motion and for generating sampled signals therefrom; (c) computing means coupled to said means for acquiring said signal for receiving and processing said sampled signals and for translating said sampled signals into command signals for moving the workpiece, and; (d) means responsive to said command signals for effecting the movement of the workpiece in response to said command signals.