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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Solving a machine vision application, whether it involves quality inspection, part verification or any number of additional tasks, requires taking several factors into...
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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Machine vision systems are playing an increasingly important role in many industrial applications, whether it is counting parts on an assembly line or examining surfaces for defects....
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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
Recent advances in motion control and machine vision technologies present tremendous opportunities for Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) systems. Thanks to recent developments in these fundamental...
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Application Briefs: Imaging
The Meister Group, a Belgian industrial group supplying the automobile market, successfully deployed Cognex’s machine vision system to help its robotic assembly cell sort out...
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Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
IDS Camera Automates Inspection
Until now, machine-based surface inspection methods have checked visual quality by means of direct or transmitted light in conjunction with a camera system. When it comes to the automated inspection of reflective and smooth surfaces, however, these methods involve problems. The resulting reflections need to be either...
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The Slipstream Series from LM76 (East Longmeadow, MA) 1 linear stage features 0.2mm/300mm accuracy and 0.1mm repeatability. Available in travel lengths to 6 meters, the precision stage has T-Slots on three sides for...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The P-653 piezo motor from Physik Instrumente (Auburn, MA) is smaller than other miniature linear stages and provides higher velocity and resolution. The linear motor system comprises only four parts and provides speeds of up to 200...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
Lenze-AC Tech (Uxbridge, MA) has introduced the enhanced SMVector NEMA1 variable frequency drive, in power ratings to 30 hp. The drive’s increased capabilities include an additional programmable digital input,...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The DR (dual profile rail) positioning stages from H2W Technologies (Valencia, CA) provide travel lengths to 160in. (4m). These wide footprint (to 15.6 in/396 mm) brushless linear motor stages handle loads up to 442lb...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
Maxon Motor (Fall River, MA) is launching a range of flat brushless DC motors with integrated electronics. The EC 20 flat, EC 32 flat and EC 45 flat motors with integrated electronics reduce the user’s need for control...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
Infrared camera
FLIR Systems Inc. (Boston, MA) has introduced the ThermoVision A320G infrared camera for machine vision applications. The A320G is reportedly the only infrared camera designed to be compatible with GigE Vision and supports the GenICam protocol for easy integration with digital cameras.
Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
ACS Motion Control (Plymouth, MN) has enhanced its motion control software to support the IEC61131-3 programming language. Designated Application Development Kit (ADK) 6.0, the PLC Open compliant control software allows...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The HC20 encoder from Dynapar (Gurnee, IL), for brushless servo and step motor applications, is capable of up to 2,500 pulses per revolution, and is available with commutation tracks for 4, 6, or 8-pole variants of brushless motors. The...
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Products: Robotics, Automation & Control
The PolyVee belt driven roller and RollerDrive from Interroll (Wilmington, NC) provides reliable torque transmission up to 300 percent higher than traditional O-rings. Unlike other multi-rib belts, the PolyVee belt features a...
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Articles: Test & Measurement
Test engineers are facing new pressures to develop high-performance test systems that maximize efficiency. Despite rapidly increasing device complexity, they have to deliver higher-speed and...
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Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
STEREO observatories and Solar Probe Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Laurel, MD 240-228-5000 www.jhuapl.edu NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) is comprised of two...
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Application Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Spacecraft leak detection system Invocon Conroe, TX 281-292-9903 www.invocon.com NASA has selected a spacecraft leak detection system from Invocon that would sense and locate air leaks in...
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Products
Aegis Software, Horsham, PA, has introduced iMonitor 2.0 software that enables manufacturers to create real-time dashboards to monitor their enterprise, factory, and processes through Web browsers. It provides interactive...
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Who's Who: Electronics & Computers
As Engineering Branch Chief for NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Division, Bill Thigpen led the team that built and deployed the 10,240-processor Columbia...
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Briefs: Imaging
A hand-held instrument that would include an ultrasonic camera has been proposed as an efficient means of reading matrix symbols. The proposed instrument could be operated without...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Visual Data Analysis for Satellites
The Visual Data Analysis Package is a collection of programs and scripts that facilitate visual analysis of data available from NASA and NOAA satellites, as well as dropsonde, buoy, and conventional in-situ observations. The package features utilities for data extraction, data quality control, statistical...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
A method and apparatus have been developed to solve the problem of automated acquisition and tracking, from a location on the ground, of a luminous moving target in the sky. The method...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Compact, highly customizable digital receivers are being developed for the system described in "Radar Interferometer for Topographic Mapping of Glaciers and Ice Sheets" (NPO-43962), NASA Tech Briefs,...
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Briefs: Information Technology
A Data Type for Efficient Representation of Other Data Types
A self-organizing, monomorphic data type denoted a sequence has been conceived to address certain concerns (summarized below) that arise in programming parallel computers. ["Sequence" as used here should not be confused with "sequence" as the word is commonly understood or with "sequence"...
Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Several improved designs for complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) integrated- circuit image detectors have been developed, primarily to reduce dark currents (leakage currents) and...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A new version of the double-Y balun, transitioning from an unbalanced microstrip to a balanced coplanar strip (CPS) line, has been designed to feed a complementary spiral antenna with an...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
A Topographical Lidar System for Terrain-Relative Navigation
An imaging lidar system is being developed for use in navigation, relative to the local terrain. This technology will potentially be used for future spacecraft landing on the Moon. Systems like this one could also be used on Earth for diverse purposes, including mapping terrain,...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Integrated circuits have been invented for managing the charging and discharging of such advanced miniature energy-storage devices as planar arrays of microscopic energy- storage...
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