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Mobile Robots for Semiconductor Factory
Automation: This highly successful clean-room transport system is used in more than 30 factories in the US, Asia, and Europe. Semiconductor wafers, glass panel LCD's and PDP's are produced in controlled clean rooms. Free-roaming robots move material around the clean room. They are contamination-free, and the system has proved to be extremely reliable by several years of service.
Each vehicle has a robot arm to load & unload wafer containers. Three independently steerable wheels support highly articulate movements including pivot spins and gliding pirouette maneuvers. Mobile Robot systems now sold by Muratec: www.muratec-usa.com |
Navigation and Docking
Navigation, traffic control, and precision docking are provided by
overhead solid-state cameras and machine vision image processing.
Cameras track the
position and motion of each vehicle simultaneously, steering and guiding down long hallways and through narrow passages. It
uses no wires, stripes, or fixed paths: all robots roam freely in
controlled zones. Fisheye lenses provide broad coverage.
Docking
is accurate and repeatable. All four corners of the vehicle dock within a
tight 1/4 inch circle. Cameras are immune to blinking lights
and to the shiny
reflective walls on all sides. Lights-off, human-free
manufacturing !
