Intelligent robotic control

12/01/1998

Intelligent robotic control

Autocalibration reduces setup and replacement time for wafer-handling robots by giving them the ability to teach themselves. The robot learns its environment using proprietary methods, keeping transport reliability high because robot action is based on real position information rather than the compounded tolerances of subjective teaching. Wafers are not misplaced or dropped and mean time to repair can be reduced from as much as four hours to as little as four minutes. MachineWorks, the fully integrated controller at the heart of Autocalibration, is aware of the robot`s state at all times. In the event of an exception condition, a robot can pause and resume when the exception has been cleared. Predictive maintenance is also provided. Out-of-spec conditions resulting from warpage, belt slippage, and bearing wear are monitored and flagged for attention during the next scheduled downtime. Berkeley Process Control Inc., Richmond, CA; ph 510/236-3333, fax 510/236-1186.