Award-Winning Gripper With Smart Remote Heads: VC Nano Cube Dual Provides Robots With Perspective

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.

About Vision Components GmbH
Founded in 1996 by Michael Engel, inventor of the first intelligent camera for industrial applications, Vision Components GmbH is a leading supplier in the field of machine vision. Branches and distributors represent the Ettlingen-based company worldwide in more than 25 countries. Vision Components develops and distributes intelligent, network-compatible real-time Smart Cameras which are able to operate without a PC. These embedded vision solutions can be easily integrated into almost any machine or plant. Customers can choose between models with ARM processors and VC Linux firmware or DSP-based models with the proprietary VCRT operating system. The product portfolio includes Smart Cameras with or without a protective housing, single board cameras, and vision sensors. Vision Components also develops custom-tailored machine vision solutions for a wide range of applications. Amongst others, typical applications include quality inspection and automation. Furthermore, VC provides free software libraries for many applications including license plate recognition, motion capture, decoding, measurement, and positioning.