We all depend on five senses to explore the world. Now robots do too.
Someone once said the eyes are a window to our soul. While we can’t give our robots a soul yet, we have found a way to allow them to see.
The average person doesn’t typically think or worry about being able to see. Forced to go without their sight, though, the world becomes a much different and complex place. It becomes a place where they are forced to rely more on their other senses.
Giving a robot the ability to see has similar challenges. The biggest is that most customers are not comfortable with programming vision systems for robots. They say it’s too complex. That’s why we’ve created ABB Integrated Vision–a plug and play package of equipment that enables customers to embed some of the most advanced vision-guided tools available on the market directly into any of our robots without needed advanced training.
No matter how cliché it might sound, even a child can use it.
Vision-guided robotic systems typically consist of three key parts: A robot, a camera, and a handling system. Our system consists of an industrial smart-camera which once plugged in instantly communicates with the robot controller. Taken together, these three components allow a robot to locate parts and to find and inspect products.
ABB Integrated Vision goes one step further. It automatically selects features and proposes parameters, minimizing deployment. The toolbox of 50 point and click commands are pre-programmed into RobotStudio®, ABB’s PC-based virtual robot programming software. RobotStudio allows robot programming to be done on a PC in the office without shutting down production or even building anything in the real world.
Featured at ABB’s North America Value Provider Conference and Technology Day in Auburn Hills, Michigan this week, ABB Integrated Vision is a state-of-the-art vision system designed to work on the manufacturing floor under the most challenging of conditions. Very simply, it allows ABB robots to clearly see what they are doing, and makes deploying them on the manufacturing floor a lot easier.
In the world of robotics, giving our robots the five basic senses is not that far off. We’ve already made breakthroughs in sight and touch, thanks to ABB Integrated Force Control. But, that is a discussion for another time.
If you can’t make to the open house in Auburn Hills this week, the following video demonstrates ABB Integrated Vision quite well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYW0Sib1Er8