Editing Automatix

{{Short description|Early robotics and machine vision company}}
{{for|the software application|Automatix (software)}}
{{infobox company
| name = Automatix Inc.
| logo = AutomatixLogo.agr.png
| logo_size = 120px
| type = Public (as of 1983)
| genre = [[Industrial robots]]
| foundation = January 1980
| founder = [[Victor Scheinman]]<br />[[Phillippe Villers]]<br />Michael Cronin<br />Arnold Reinhold<br />Jake Dias<br />Dan Nigro <br />Gordon VanderBrug<br /> [[Donald L. Pieper]] <br />Norman Wittels
| location_city = [[Billerica, Massachusetts]]
| location_country = USA
| location = 
| locations = 
| area_served = 
| key_people = 
| industry = 
| products = 
| services = 
| market cap = 
| revenue = 
| operating_income = 
| net_income = 
| assets = 
| equity = 
| owner = 
| num_employees = 
| parent = 
| divisions = 
| subsid = 
| homepage = 
| footnotes = 
| intl = 
}}

'''Automatix Inc.''', founded in January 1980, was the first company to market [[industrial robots]] with built-in [[machine vision]].<ref>The robot: the life story of a technology, Lisa Nocks, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007,</ref><ref>Robots sharpen up their vision, New Scientist, December 15, 1983, p.811</ref> Its founders were  [[Victor Scheinman]], inventor of the [[Stanford arm]]; [[Phillippe Villers]], Michael Cronin, and Arnold Reinhold of [[Computervision]]; Jake Dias and Dan Nigro of [[Data General]]; Gordon VanderBrug, of [[NIST|NBS]], [[Donald L. Pieper]] of [[General Electric]] and Norman Wittels of [[Clark University]].

== Products ==
[[Image:AutomatixRobots1985.agr.jpg|thumb|left|Automatix robots at the Robots '85 trade show in [[Detroit|Detroit, Michigan]]. Clockwise from lower left: AID 600, AID 900 Seamtracker, Yaskawa Motoman.]]

Initial product offerings included the Autovision machine vision system, the Robovision [[welding]] robot and the Cybervision electronic parts assembly system.<ref>Industrial Robotics Handbook, V. Daniel Hunt, 1983, p.183 ff</ref> Automatix was one of the first users of [[Motorola 68000]] microprocessors, but because almost no software existed for the 68000 in 1980, Automatix had to develop its own operating system and a robotics scripting language, called "RAIL".<ref>[http://hopl.murdoch.edu.au/showlanguage.prx?exp=2428 RAIL bibliography] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310235941/http://hopl.murdoch.edu.au/showlanguage.prx?exp=2428 |date=March 10, 2011 }}</ref> Its initial machine vision offering was based on software and hardware licensed from [[Stanford Research Institute]]. In the late 1980s, Automatix replaced the proprietary 68000 computer in its vision products with an [[Apple Computer|Apple]] [[Macintosh II]].

[[File:RobotWorldJune1986.agr.jpg|thumb|[[Victor Scheinman]] setting up his RobotWorld system at the Robots '86 show. Small manipulators and camera sensor modules suspended under the top on a 2-D [[linear motor]] grid can move freely to perform assembly operations and other manipulations in the space below.]]
Automatix mostly used robot mechanisms imported from [[Hitachi, Ltd.|Hitachi]] at first and later from [[Yaskawa]] and [[KUKA]]. It did design and manufacture a [[Cartesian robot]] called the AID-600. The 600 was intended for use in precision assembly but was adapted for welding use, particularly [[Tungsten inert gas welding]] (TIG), which demands high accuracy and immunity from the intense [[electromagnetic interference]] that the TIG process creates. Automatix was the first company to market a vision-guided welding robot called Seamtracker.  [[Structured-light 3D scanner|Structured]] [[laser]] light and [[monochromatic]] [[Filter (optics)|filter]]s were used to allow an image to be seen in the presence of the welding arc.  Another concept, invented by Mr. Scheinman, was RobotWorld, a system of cooperating small modules suspended from a 2-D linear motor. The product line was later sold to Yaskawa.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.motoman.com/products/worlds/robotworld.htm |title=Motoman RobotWorld |access-date=2007-08-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060320154302/http://www.motoman.com/products/worlds/robotworld.htm |archive-date=2006-03-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Machine vision systems===
[[File:AutovisionIIatRDT.jpg|thumb|Autovision II machine vision system being demonstrated at the [[Technology 83]] trade show in Israel in 1983. Camera on tripod is pointing down at a light table to produce backlit image shown on screen, which is then subjected to [[blob extraction]].]]
[[File:Autovision3generations988.agr.tiff|thumb|Three generations of Automatix vision systems, AI 90, AV 5 and AV I]]
Automatix introduced several different machine vision systems during its history:
* Autovision I, 1981, designed for fast time to market, was based on Vision Module technology licensed from [[SRI International|Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI). The AV I used an early [[Motorola 68000]] KDM prototype board interfaced to a [[Unibus]] frame grabber board purchased from SRI. The frame grabber was designed for the General Electric TN-2200, an early solid state video camera with a 128 by 128 pixel array and [[C-mount]] lens.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-dzICbc-LjEC&dq=TN+2200+GE+camera&pg=PA109 Machine Vision], Nello Zeuch and Rickard K. Miller, 1987, p.109</ref> [[DECtape]] II drives were used for program and data storage.
* Autovision II, 1982, used a custom designed [[Versabus]] 68000 processor with a custom 8-channel [[RS-170]]  Versabus [[frame grabber]] employing an [[AMD Am2900]] bit slice micro-controller, packaged in an industrially hardened [[National Electrical Manufacturers Association|NEMA-12]] enclosure.
* Autovision IV, similar to AV II, but with a patented frame grabber using dual 68000s. Then-new Sony {{frac|3|1|2}}-inch [[floppy drive]]s replaced DECtape.
* AV 5, same electronics as the AV IV, but in  a [[rack mount]] package.
* AI 90, 1987, vision system based on an Apple [[Macintosh II]] repackaged in a rack mount industrial enclosure, with RAIL ported to Mac OS (MacRAIL). It was announced at the [[MacWorld Expo]] in Boston in 1987.<ref>"Will the Macintosh Wave Hit the Factory Floor?," Michael Babb, Control Engineering, September 1987, pp. 128-129</ref>
* Autovision 90, a rack mount Apple [[Quadra 950]].<ref>[http://www.applefritter.com/node/3320 Pictures and description of Autovision 90]</ref>
* Image Analyst, a software package for Macintosh computers, based on MacRAIL.<ref>{{Cite news 
 | first = John
 | last = Rizzo
 | title = Image Analyst and Enhance
 | url = 
 | work = MacUser
 | publisher = 
 | pages = 55–58
 | date = July 1990
 | quote = 
}}</ref>

The Automatix AI-32 robot controller used the same processor, bus and RAIL language as the AV II, IV and 5, allowing frame grabber and processing boards to be added for integrated machine vision.

==Evolution and corporate merger==
[[File:AutomatixSeamtrackerDev.agr.jpg|thumb|SeamTracker vision-guided arc welding robot under development.]]
Automatix raised large amounts of [[venture capital]], and [[initial public offering|went public]] in 1983, but was not profitable until the early 1990s. In 1994, Automatix [[corporate merger|merged]] with another machine vision company, Itran Corp., to form Acuity Imaging, Inc.  Acuity was acquired by ''Robotics Vision Systems Inc.'' (RVSI) in September 1995.  As of 2004, RVSI supported the evolved Automatix machine vision package under the PowerVision brand.

In August 2005 RVSI itself was acquired by [[Siemens]] Energy and Automation who by mid-2008 are marketing the RVSI Visionscape and Hawkeye products alongside their own SIMATIC brand, some of which are re-branded DVT/[[Cognex Corporation|Cognex]] smart cameras. In September 2008, [[Microscan Systems, Inc.]], of Renton, Washington,  acquired Siemens' Machine Vision business, including Visionscape and Hawkeye.<ref>[http://files.microscan.com/_att/40e9c7ae-b7cd-465f-af7c-7fec7ba2dc16/Microscan_Completes_Acq_PR.pdf Microscan completes]microscan.com {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714085450/http://files.microscan.com/_att/40e9c7ae-b7cd-465f-af7c-7fec7ba2dc16/Microscan_Completes_Acq_PR.pdf |date=2011-07-14 }}</ref> As of August 2016, the Powervision system developed by Automatix was still available from RPC Machine Vision Systems, a value added reseller of Microscan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rpcvision.com/ |title=Home |website=rpcvision.com |access-date=2009-01-01 |archive-date=2010-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419072446/http://www.rpcvision.com/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>  However, in December 2017, Microscan was purchased by [[Omron|Omron Corporation]], and its product lines, including MicroHawk and Visionscape, are sold through Omron's distribution network.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.microscan.com/en-us/company/news/omron-acquires-microscan-to-complete-machine-vision-portfolio-microhawk-lvs|title=Omron Acquires Microscan to Complete Machine Vision Portfolio|website=www.microscan.com|language=en-us|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|2}}
* ''Computervision vs. Automatix (A) & (B)'', Harvard Business School case studies 384-142 & 384-143
*{{US patent|4841762}}: Symmetry calibration method for multi-configuration robots
*{{US patent|4597081}}: Encoder interface with error detection and method therefor
*{{US patent|4577344}}: Vision system
*{{US patent|4497996}}: Arc welding system with vision
*{{US patent|4413180}}: Method and apparatus for image acquisition utilizing a hollow shaft motor and a concave, cylindrical reflector
*{{US patent|4409478}}: Method and apparatus for image acquisition utilizing a concave, cylindrical reflector
*[http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X203.83 Autovision I] at [[Computer History Museum]]
*[http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102728764 Autovision II CPU board CP32] at Computer History Museum
{{refend}}

{{Commons category|Automatix|position=left}}

[[Category:Industrial robotics]]
[[Category:Commercial computer vision systems]]
[[Category:Companies based in Billerica, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Computer companies established in 1980]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1980]]
[[Category:1980 establishments in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Robotics companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies based in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]