MAY 22--Cognex Corporation (Natick, MA) has acquired AssistWare Technology, a privately held developer of lane-departure-warning (LDW) systems for the heavy-truck market. AssistWare's LDW system uses a small video camera and machine-vision technology to watch the road ahead and alert drivers if they unintentionally leave their lane or if their driving pattern becomes erratic.
The acquisition of AssistWare was completed on May 22, 2006. Cognex will retain AssistWare's employees and current offices in Gibsonia, PA, which will serve as an advanced research-and-development center for Cognex's initiative in this new market area. AssistWare's founder, Dean Pomerleau, a recognized expert with more than 15 years of experience in the field, will join Cognex to lead those R&D activities.
"Cognex will continue to develop, support, and market AssistWare's LDW technology for the heavy trucking industry in the near term, with a focus on expanding its capabilities to include such features as collision warning, headlight dimming, and adaptive cruise control," said Robert J. Shillman, chairman and CEO of Cognex. "Over time, we plan to develop and offer inward-looking sensors for truck and passenger vehicles that will be able to do such things as recognize the driver and determine the size and position of each occupant for intelligent air-bag deployment."
In addition to providing LDW products to commercial trucking fleets, AssistWare is playing a role in federally funded research on driver-assistance technologies. AssistWare, along with partners at The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Eaton Corp., Visteon Corp., Honda R&D Americas Inc., Battelle Memorial Institute, and the Michigan Department of Transportation, was recently selected by the US Department of Transportation to take part in a $25 million program to develop, deploy, and test a new integrated vehicle-warning system to help drivers avoid accidents.
Visit Cognex online at www.cognex.com.
