09/27/10 —   To further integrate robot control into its dyanamic PC-based software platform, Minneapolis-based Beckhoff Automation has released its new TwinCAT Kinematic Transformation software. With this release, TwinCAT software now extends its standard machine sequencing and motion control capability to Delta- and SCARA-type robot mechanisms with a Kinematic Transformation option.    This eliminates the need for a dedicated robot controller, the associated software, and handshaking routines in applications that require a robot to handle part loading/unloading tasks.  Since the robot control is in the same controller, the robot movements can be tightly coordinated with non-robotic motion such as conveyors and other…

06/11/09 — Fanuc Robotics, Inc. is demonstrating its high-speed food-picking robot arm at the Fooma Tokyo food-automation expo this week. The units, which were the first to pass USDA hygiene requirements and got the company an approving nod from analysts at Robotics Business Review for the innovation, are designed to pick primary and packaged food at speeds as high as 120 cycles per minute. It can’t make the sushi, in other words, but it can assemble and present it at hygiene levels acceptable for food preparation under U.S. regulations. Its greaseless, sealed design resists food and bacterial buildup and allows it to…