Abstract
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors:“Robots are in widespread use throughout industry, performing an ever-increasing variety of tasks. Althoughmany robots are task-specific, hav ing been designed to execute a particular set of actions in asingle manufacturi ng environment, more versatile robots capable of many tasks have become common.Programming a general-purpose robot to perform a particular set of actions is of ten a tedious process.The user must somehow communicate to the robot the intent of the task (e.g., pick up this object at thislocation and place it at a goal location) and the task constraints (e.g., don’t hit anything in the workspace).Such task-specific programming can be painstaking and applies only to a specific configuration of the robotand workspace. If the workspace changes, the robot t ypically must be reprogrammed.”
NETL
NSTL