AUGUST 13--Braintech Inc. (North Vancouver, BC, Canada; www.braintech.com), which specializes in the design and integration of artificial intelligence, focusing on robotic vision applications for manufacturing, and ABB Flexible Automation--part of ABB Canada, a technology firm serving customers in power transmission and power distribution--have successfully completed another multicamera installation for the TI Automotive Group of North America, which produces blow-molded plastic fuel tanks. Braintech's vision technology allows industrial robots to effectively "see and react" to changing conditions within a factory environment. Integrating directly with an ABB robot allows for a high degree of accuracy for plastic welding and drilling operations despite unpredictable variation in the part dimension and orientation.

"The Braintech vision system, combined with laser technology, provides our robots with the ability to make adjustments when performing various operation on each part," says ABB general manager Barry Mitchell. "Plastic is affected by variables such as temperature and humidity so an accurate, fully integrated vision system to guide the robot is critical to this process."

Mon Aug 13 10:11:00 CDT 2001