Adept Technology, Inc. announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has awarded the company three patents on its innovative Smart Camera systems. U.S. Patents Nos. 6,958,780, 6,988,008 and 7,174,224, each titled Smart Camera, detail systems and methods for machine control systems employing digital cameras.
The Adept patents cover the application of new Smart Cameras with robotics or motion mechanisms where the image processing is done within the camera versus traditional PC-based systems. This lowers the cost of vision adoption in assembly and material handling manufacturing applications. The granting of these patents means that Adept now owns more than a dozen patents covering the core technology for vision-guided robotics systems.
The integration of vision with motion control creates the most robust, scalable and flexible automation systems available. The independent industry group, Robot Industry Association (RIA) has forecasted the market for vision-guided and vision-based systems, essential for precision manufacturing and quality control, to expand by over 27% per annum through to the year 2009.
Adepts Smart Camera patents are designed to protect our continued software investment in core intellectual property associated with vision based automation, said Rob Bucher, Adepts CEO, We are pleased that the US Patent and Trademark Office has recognized our contributions to this field by granting us these foundational patents.
