Universal Robotics, Inc. and Motoman, Inc. announced a partnership to develop and market an accurate, cost effective and easy-to-implement 3D vision system solution for a variety of robotic applications. The companies will integrate Universal's Spatial Vision self-calibrating 3D vision software in Motoman's industrial robots. The Spatial Vision-enabled robots will be initially launched in the materials handling market in early 2010.

"Motoman is delighted to partner with Universal to launch a new line of Motoman robots enhanced with Spatial Vision," said Roger Christian, Vice President Marketing and International Groups at Motoman. "The Spatial Vision software is an exciting breakthrough by Universal that will allow us to set a new price-performance point in the robotic 3D vision systems market. From 3D bin picking to racking, these robots will allow our customers to enhance their operations and save valuable time and resources."

Current 3D robotic vision systems require extensive programming and laborious setup and can be very costly to implement and maintain. These factors have limited the wide adoption of this technology in many markets. Spatial Vision is advancing 3D vision technology and making it viable for virtually any 3D robotic application. The Spatial Vision system is easy to setup. It enables automatic self-calibration with full color and high definition images with millimeter accuracy within a robot's work envelope at a fraction of the cost of current systems.

The Spatial Vision system can automatically identify any dynamic point in 3D space and calculate the distance to this point using inexpensive web cams. It delivers accurate, full-frame color results at 960 by 720 pixels four to five times per second. In addition to 3D bin picking, Spatial Vision-enabled robots are ideally suited to automated applications including racking and de-racking of parts, and picking loosely-oriented parts on a conveyor belt.

"Spatial Vision software gives robots the real-time high-fidelity input necessary to react to their physical environments. This is an important step towards Universal's efforts to enable machines to efficiently perform difficult or dangerous tasks," said David Peters, CEO of Universal Robotics. "Motoman is a leader in industrial robotics and we are excited to work with the company to create an overall Spatial Vision solution. These new systems will be utilized throughout the materials handling market and have great potential to enhance efficiencies and improve operations in additional industries."