Braintech adds 2.5-D vision-guidance technology to ABB robots

MAY 20--Braintech Inc. (www.braintech.com) has announced the availability of its Inferential Depth Measurement (IDM) technology. IDM technology provides 2.5-D robot guidance and is targeted toward simpler guidance processes. The company also announced the first customer for a 2.5-D TrueView system--Pullman Industries (www.pullmanind.com), an automotive-component and modular-assembly supplier.

Braintech president and COO Babak Habibi stated, "The development of 2.5-D IDM made sense because it filled an important gap between strictly 2-D applications and those requiring full 3-D capabilities. IDM exploits visual cues such as size and shape variations among parts, to compute not only the planar x, y, and rotation of a given part, but also its height, or z coordinate, relative to the robot's coordinate system. This capability eliminates the need for using extraneous height-measurement devices, such as tactile sensors and laser rangefinders, that have traditionally been required."