Safety Multi-Camera Gripper “Roberta” brings innovation to versatile and efficient automation solutions

gomtec’s Safety Multi-Camera Gripper can “see” thanks to the smart camera VC6210 nano cube dual
Photo by Vision Components GmbH

The Safety Multi-Camera Gripper “Roberta” from gomtec GmbH has won second prize in the category “Innovative New Product” at this year’s handling award competition which was held during the Motek exhibition. The electrically operated gripper has been developed especially for small and medium-sized companies wishing to implement versatile, efficient automation solutions. The gripper integrates a stereo camera system – a first in the world of robotics and automation. The camera system is based on the VC6210 nano cube dual from machine vision expert Vision Components. Using standard components, VC has created a customer-specific design for gomtec. The intelligent camera’s two 1/3” CMOS sensors are protected by compact housings measuring 22 x 22 x22.5 mm. They provide a 572 x 480 pixel resolution, and can record 55 frames per second. Like all VC smart cameras, this model independently executes all image processing routines without an external PC – in this case, by means of a 700 MHz processor from Texas Instruments. Image recognition and processing are thus carried out 100% on board the gripper system. Thanks to simultaneous triggering of the two sensors, even 3D measurements are possible.

The camera system also includes four controllable light sources; automatic, dynamic lighting range and intensity control; infrared illumination to reduce disturbances from ambient lighting; and exchangeable camera lenses with different focal lengths. During development of the lightweight gripper, gomtec has paid particular attention to intuitive programming, which was implemented by means of the HALCON Embedded machine vision software. This resulted in user-friendly operation requiring no expert programming skills.

For more information, please visit http://www.vision-components.com.

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