System and system for robot mounted sensor
AssigneeChemImage Corporation
InventorsPatrick J. Treado, Charles W. Gardner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method for the remote analysis and identification of unknown compounds. A robotic arm positions a sensor on a surface. The sensor unit has a monitoring mechanism to monitor separation between the sensor unit and the surface when placed in contact with the surface to maintain the separation substantially constant. An illumination source illuminates the region of interest to produce scattered photons from an unknown compound. The scattered photons are collected by an optical system and delivered to a spectroscopic detector for analysis and identification. An algorithm is applied to the data generated by the spectroscopic detector to identify the unknown compound.
Claims18
An apparatus comprising:
- a vertically-movable robotic arm;
- and
- a vertically-movable sensor unit operatively coupled to said robotic arm and having a monitoring mechanism configured to physically contact a surface in a region of interest, wherein said monitoring mechanism includes:
- at least one rod configured to be placed in physical contact with said surface through vertical motion of said sensor unit,
- a force sensor coupled to said at lest one rod to generate an output signal based on contact force between said at least one rod and said surface, and
- a feedback mechanism coupled to said force sensor to receive said output signal and to maintain said output signal substantially constant by adjusting vertical separation between said sensor unit and said surface in the region of interest thereby maintaining said separation substantially constant so as to compensate for vertical movement of said robotic arm during an analysis of said region of interest.
(canceled)
A method comprising:
- placing a vertically-movable sensor unit adjacent to a surface in a region of interest using a vertically-movable robotic arm;
- placing at least one rod in physical contact with said surface through vertical motion of said sensor unit;
- detecting contact force between said at least one rod and said surface using a force sensor coupled to said at least one rod so as to generate an output signal;
- receiving said output signal using a feedback mechanism coupled to said force sensor;
- and
- maintaining said output signal substantially constant by adjusting vertical separation between said sensor unit and said surface in the region of interest using said feedback mechanism, thereby maintaining said separation substantially constant so as to compensate for vertical movement of said robotic arm during an analysis of said region of interest.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.