Cooperative multiaxis sensor for teleoperation of article manipulating apparatus

Claim 2

In apparatus for grasping an article under remote control, a system for detecting spatial position and orientation of a grasping effector relative to said article comprising a sensor including a planar photodetecting means divided into four quadrants to define X and Y coordinates, and a first light emitting diode means on a Z axis normal to the X and Y axes and the plane of said photodetecting means, two additional light emitting means equally spaced on each side of said first diode in a plane defined by said X and Z axes, and means for sequentially energizing said light emitting means, and a target comprising two plane mirrors and a corner retroreflector mounted on said article to reflect images of said light emitting means as they are energized in sequence in order to produce signals from said quadrants which, when combined and nulled, will align said X, Y and Z axes of said sensor with corresponding axes Xm, Ym and Zm of said target where said Zm axis is at equal angles from all sides of said retroreflectors, said Xm axis is perpendicular to said Zm axis and passes through each of said two plane mirrors disposed on opposite sides of said retroreflector, and said Ym axis is perpendicular to said Zm and Xm axes, and will also decrease the distance between the sensor and the mirror to a predetermined value.

Claim 3

In apparatus for manipulating an article under remote control, said apparatus having means for grasping a specially prepared handle on said article and means responsive to feedback signals for automatic control of spatial position and orientation of said grasping means with respect to said handle, means for generating said feedback signals comprising in combination a target mounted on the handle comprising means for establishing two optical vectors in a plane defined by Xm and Zm axes of an Xm, Ym and Zm coordinate system where axes Xm and Ym are perpendicular to each other and to axis Zm, and axis Zm is in the direction of desired approach for said grasping means, said reference vectors being equidistant from said axis Zm and at equal acute angles from said axis Zm, sensing means having mutually perpendicular X, Y and Z axes mounted on said grasping means for detecting said target and developing response signals proportional to spatial position and orientation from said point reference and said two vector references, and means for developing said feedback signals from said response signals to drive said automatic control means to a null for a corresponding spatial position and orientation of the X, Y and Z axes of said sensing means with the Xm, Ym and Zm axes of said target, and a predetermined distance from the intersection of said Xm, Ym and Zm axes.

Claim 4

In apparatus for manipulating an article under remote control, said apparatus having means for grasping a specially prepared handle on said article and means responsive to feedback signals for automatic control of spatial position and orientation of said grasping means with respect to said handle, means for generating said feedback signals comprising in combination a target mounted on the handle comprising means for establishing two optical vectors in a plane defined by Xm and Zm axes of an Xm, Ym and Zm coordinate system where axes Xm and Ym are perpendicular to each other and to axis Zm, and axis Zm is in the direction of desired approach for said grasping means, said reference vectors being equidistant from said axis Zm and at equal acute angles from said axis Zm, sensing means having mutually perpendicular X, Y and Z axes mounted on said grasping means for detecting said target and developing response signals proportional to spatial position and orientation from said point reference and said two vector references, and means for developing said feedback signals from said response signals to drive said automatic control means to a null for a corresponding spatial position and orientation of the X, Y and Z axes of said sensing means with the Xm, Ym and Zm axes of said target, and a predetermined distance from the intersection of said Xm, Ym and Zm axes.

Claim 5

The combination defined in claim 2 wherein said target is comprised of a corner retroreflector having its apex at the intersection of said axis Xm, Ym AND Zm, and two plane mirrors disposed about said retroreflector and opposite each other, the reflecting surface of each plane mirror being positioned to have a line normal to its reflecting surface at said acute angle from said axis Zm in said Xm-Zm plane, and said sensor is comprised of a planar photodetecting means divided into four quadrants A, B, C and D to define X and Y axes normal to a Z axis perpendicular to the center of the plane of said quadrants, the X axis being parallel to a line passing through the centers of diagonally opposite quadrants A and B and the Y axis being parallel to a line passing through the centers of the remaining diagonally opposite quadrants C and D, and three pulsed light emitting sources, one disposed on the Z axis of said sensor and the remaining two disposed in a plane defined by said X and Z axes of said center at equal distances from said Z axis.

Claim 6

The combination of claim 3 wherein said means for developing said feedback signals is comprised of means for pulsing said light emitting means in nonoverlapping sequential phases phi 1, phi 2 and phi 3 starting with the light emitting means on said Z axis during phase phi 1, means for combining signals from said quadrants A, B, C and D during each phase to obtain signals Vxn and Vyn according to the equations Vxn A-B Vyn C-D where the subscript n indicates the phase, means for separately and repeatedly sampling and holding said signals Vxn and Vyn during successive phases to obtain separate signals Vx1, Vx2, Vx3, Vy1, Vy2 and Vy3, and means for combining the separate signals according to the following equations Alpha x Vx1 Alpha y Vy1 Beta x Vx2+Vx3 Beta y Vy2+ Vy3 R Vx2-Vx3 theta Vy2-Vy3 where the signal R is proportional to the distance between said sensor and said point reference of said target along the Z axis of said sensor, the signal theta proportional to the azmithul angle between the X axis of said sensor and the Xm axis of said target, the Alpha x and Alpha y signals are proportional to the angles between the Z axis of said sensor and a line between the center of said sensor and said point reference in respective planes X-Z and Y-Z defined by the axes X and Z and the axes Y and Z of said sensor, and the signals Beta x and Beta y are proportional to the angles between the Zm axis of said target and said line between the center of said sensor and said point reference in respective planes Xm-Zm and Ym-Zm defined by the axes Xm and Zm and the axes Ym and Zm.

Claim 7

In apparatus having a servomechanism for automatically adjusting the spatial position and orientation of an effector relative to an article, a system for sensing relative spatial position and alignment of said effector with respect to a specially prepared target mounted on said article utilizing a sensor having orthogonal X, Y and Z axes built into it for alignment with a corresponding orthogonal Xm, Ym and Zm axis built into said target, said target being comprised of a composite of a corner retroreflector and two plane mirrors disposed on opposite sides of said retroreflector, each plane mirror having a line normal to its reflecting surface at an equal angle with a line passing through the apex of said retroreflector at equal angles from all sides, said plane passing through said axis Zx which intersects said axis Zm at said apex, and said sensor being comprised of a planar photodetecting means divided into four electrically independent quadrants, means for focusing a light image received from said target onto planar photodetecting means, where the axis of the focusing means normal to the planar photodetecting means constitutes said Z axis, a first pulsed light emitting means placed in front of said focusing means on said Z axis, and second and third pulsed light emitting means equally spaced on opposite sides of said Z axis in a plane passing through the said X axis, where the direction of said X axis is defined by a line passing through the centers of two dramatically opposite quadrants, means for pulsing said diodes in phased sequence, means for combining said signals from diametrically opposite quadrants along said X axis and along said Y axis to obtain signals Vxn and Vyn as each of said first, second and third light emitting means is pulsed in sequence, where the subscripts n represents the numbers 1, 2 and 3 corresponding to the order in which said light emitting means are pulsed and the subscripts x and y correlate the pair of quadrants by their associated axis, and where each of said signals Vxn and Vyn are the differences of the signals from the paired quadrants, means for sampling signals Vx1 and Vy1 as servomechanism feedback signals proportional to angles Alpha x and Alpha y in respective Z-X and Z-Y planes between said Z axis and a line from the intersection of the X, Y and Z axes of said sensor to the apex of said retroreflector, means for sampling signals Vx2, Vy2, Vx3 and Vy3 in pairs paired by the subscript numerals, means for combining sampled signals Vx2, Vy2, Vx3 and Vy3 as paired by their subscripts x and y to obtain as feedback signals their sums and differences, their sums producing signals proportional to angles Beta x and Beta y in respective Zm-Xm and Zm-Ym planes between said Zm axis and said line from the intersection of the X, Y and Z axes of said sensor to the apex of said retroreflector, and their respective differences producing signals proportional to distance along said Z axis and azmithul angle, theta , between said sensor X or Y axis and the corresponding target axis Xm or Ym, and separate servomotors responsive to said feedback signals in said servomechanism to drive said effector to a position which nulls said feedback signals.

Claim 8

In apparatus having a servomechanism for automatically adjusting the spatial position and orientation of an effector relative to an article, a system for sensing relative spatial position and alignment of said effector with respect to a specially prepared target mounted on said article utilizing a sensor having orthogonal X, Y and Z axes built into it for alignment with a corresponding orthogonal Xm, Ym and Zm axis built into said target, said target being comprised of a composite of a corner retroreflector and two plane mirrors disposed on opposite sides of said retroreflector, each plane mirror having a line normal to its reflecting surface at an equal angle with a line passing through the apex of said retroreflector at equal angles from all sides, said plane passing through said axis Zx which intersects said axis Zm at said apex, and said sensor being comprised of a planar photodetecting means divided into four electrically independent quadrants, means for focusing a light image received from said target onto planar photodetecting means, where the axis of the focusing means normal to the planar photodetecting means constitutes said Z axis, a first pulsed light emitting means placed in front of said focusing means on said Z axis, and second and third pulsed light emitting means equally spaced on opposite sides of said Z axis in a plane passing through the said X axis, where the direction of said X axis is defined by a line passing through the centers of two dramatically opposite quadrants, means for pulsing said diodes in phased sequence, means for combining said signals from diametrically opposite quadrants along said X axis and along said Y axis to obtain signals Vxn and Vyn as each of said first, second and third light emitting means is pulsed in sequence, where the subscripts n represents the numbers 1, 2 and 3 corresponding to the order in which said light emitting means are pulsed and the subscripts x and y correlate the pair of quadrants by their associated axis, and where each of said signals Vxn and Vyn are the differences of the signals from the paired quadrants, means for sampling signals Vx1 and Vy1 as servomechanism feedback signals proportional to angles Alpha x and Alpha y in respective Z-X and Z-Y planes between said Z axis and a line from the intersection of the X, Y and Z axes of said sensor to the apex of said retroreflector, means for sampling signals Vx2, Vy2, Vx3 and Vy3 in pairs paired by the subscript numerals, means for combining sampled signals Vx2, Vy2, Vx3 and Vy3 as paired by their subscripts x and y to obtain as feedback signals their sums and differences, their sums producing signals proportional to angles Beta x and Beta y in respective Zm-Xm and Zm-Ym planes between said Zm axis and said line from the intersection of the X, Y and Z axes of said sensor to the apex of said retroreflector, and their respective differences producing signals proportional to distance along said Z axis and azmithul angle, theta , between said sensor X or Y axis and the corresponding target axis Xm or Ym, and separate servomotors responsive to said feedback signals in said servomechanism to drive said effector to a position which nulls said feedback signals.

Claim 9

The combination of claim 5 wherein said signals Vx1 and Vy1 are applied to servomotors which drive said deflector to effectively align the Z axis of said sensor with the apex of said retroreflector, thereby reducing said angles Alpha x and Alpha y toward zero, and said signals proportional to angles Beta x and Beta y are applied to servomotors which drive said effector to effectively move the Z axis of said sensor along its respective X and Y axis to bring its Z axis into coincidence with the Zm axis of said target while said signal proportional to azmithul angle, theta , is applied to a servomotor which relates said effector to effectively rotate said sensor about its Z axis, thereby reducing said azmithul angle toward zero, and while said signal proportional to distance, R, is applied to a servomotor which drives said effector in a direction parallel to said Z axis of said sensor.