American Robot and Robotic Workspace Technologies sign merger agreement

Citation

(1998), "American Robot and Robotic Workspace Technologies sign merger agreement", Industrial Robot, Vol. 25 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1998.04925cab.003

American Robot and Robotic Workspace Technologies sign merger agreement

American Robot and Robotic Workspace Technologies sign merger agreement

Keywords Merger, Robots, USA

Officials of Robotic Workspace Technologies, Inc. and American Robot Corporation, Oakdale (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania have announced the merger of their two companies. The merged organization will be known as American Robot Technologies, Inc.

American Robot Technologies will be dedicated to the development of PC-based robotic hardware and software technologies that specifically reduce the cost of robot systems while providing increased functionality and processing flexibility. The flagship product of American Robot Technologies is the universal robot controller (URC), a PC-based (Intel processors and Microsoft Windows NT), open architecture, multiple-machine controller that the two companies have co-developed.

"This merger will revolutionize robotic automation," says Walter Weisel, President, Robotic Workspace Technologies. "The universal robot controller represents aparadigm shift in how we approach robot motion control. By migrating the basis of robot motion control from a hardware platform to a software platform American Robot Corporation has greatly expanded the capabilities and efficiencies of robotic arm control while enhancing robotic processes."

"What we've done through the development of the URC," explains Peyton Collins, President, American Robot Corporation, "is to provide virtually unlimited processing flexibility while eliminating all the constraints of proprietary hardware configurations. What's more, we've proven that we can 'fix' many robot hardware design problems by compensating for these characteristics in software. The result is not only greater flexibility, but also higher performance, repeatability, and reliability. RWI's experience with literally thousands of robot installations, plus the development of a universal programming language and a standard control platform completes the scope of what robot users want".

"The impact of the URC on the robotic industry is as dramatic as was the shift from hydraulic to electric robots," Mr Weisel states. "Today, we finally have a robust, user-friendly, open architecture robot controller that provides the real-time, dual-Pentium processing power, applications versatility, built-in functionality, intuitive operator interface and integration capability that the shop floor has been demanding to not only eliminate the robotic islands of automation, but also to maximize the applicability of robotic technology."

American Robot Corporation has been focused on developing advanced PC-based, open architecture robot motion controls since its inception in 1983, and claims to be one of the world's leading experts in the area of robot motion control. More than 400 robot motion control systems have been installed by American Robot on articulated, gantry, SCARA, and custom robot arms. These installations include Fortune 100 manufacturing companies in the aerospace, automotive, defense, electronics, medical, nuclear, and R&D industries.

Robotic Workspace Technologies introduced its PC-based open architecture universal robot controller (URC) in July 1997 using American Robot software. Since its introduction, the URC has been used for robot control systems for both new robots and retrofit robots. Fortune 100 manufacturers in the aerospace, automotive, and defense industries have already purchased RWT's URC control to retrofit existing production robots to the state-of-the-art in motion control technology, saving millions in capital equipment expenditures and production downtime. In addition, several Fortune 500 manufacturers are demanding robot OEMs to provide the LSRC controller with new robot arms. A number of robot manufacturers view the URC as an opportunity to make a quantum leap forward in robotic control and are, in fact, willing to meet customer demand by providing their new robot systems with the URC controller.

Several system integrators and robot users are also standardizing on the URC, especially because of its "plug and play" connectivity that supports integration of peripherals like vision systems. Users are particularly excited about RWT's new RobotScript robot programming language, employed by the URC, claims the company. RobotScript was developed by RWT and is based on Microsoft's Visual Basic, the world's most widely used programming language with more than three million users worldwide. RobotScript conforms to industry standards and is compatible with all current and expected future versions of Windows and Windows application software. "One language serves all robots. This is an industry breakthrough", says Mr Weisel.

For further information contact: Walter Weisel, President, Robotic Workspace Technologies, 17105 San Carlos Blvd, Suite A6151, Ft Myers Beach, FL 33931. Tel: (941) 466 0488; Fax: (941) 466 7270; or Peyton Collins, President, American Robot Corporation, 308 High Tech Drive, Oakdale, PA 15071. Tel: (412) 695 9000; Fax: (412) 695 9001.