System for visually determining position in space and/or orientation in space and apparatus employing same

A method of conveying at least one of position and orientation information that comprises:

• introducing to a space of interest at least one visually detectable object which possesses the discernible properties of a+ least one of position and orientation;
• sensing the presence of said object in said space to provide a signal that contains information or data relative to at least one of position and orientation of the object;
• arbitrarily specifying the manner in which said information or data is to be interpreted;
• and analyzing the information or data conveyed by the signal to extract therefrom said properties of the object.

A system to instruct a robot and having, in combination:

• portable means arbitrarily movable in space and possessing the discernible properties of at least one of position in space and orientation in space, said portable means comprising two lights separated from one another and movable with respect to one another;
• means to change the distance between the two lights, the orientation of an imaginary line segment between the two lights serving as a source of visual orientation information and the position of the center of said imaginary line segment serving as a source of visual position information;
• sensor means operatively disposed to extract visual information from the portable means that receives said electrical signal from the sensor means;
• and computer means that evaluates the same to provide an indication of at least one of position in space and orientation in space;
• and a robot, said computer means serving to control robot actions and movement on the basis of said visual information.

A system to determine at least one of position in space and orientation in space and having, in combination:

• portable means arbitrarily movable in space and possessing the discernible properties of at least one of position in space and orientation in space;
• sensor means operatively disposed to extract spatial information from the portable means and operable to convert it to an electrical signal;
• computer means that receives said electrical signal from the sensor means and evaluates the same to provide an indication of at least one of position in space and orientation in space;
• and fiducial or reference means which occupies a spatial reference position from which can be determined other spatial positions of interest in the system.