Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!wupost!usc!rpi!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utzoo!kcarroll
From: kcarroll@zoo.toronto.edu (Kieran A. Carroll)
Subject: Re: Need a good robot, try 976-GRIP :)
Message-ID: <1992Mar2.184721.12147@zoo.toronto.edu>
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1992 18:47:21 GMT
References: <79@kluge.fiu.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 42

In article <79@kluge.fiu.edu> luiss@fiu.edu writes:
>Ok, just joking. Seriously, I am looking for robot manipulator manufacturers.
>Including grippers, sonar, and mobility, 6 or more axis (any combination). 
>Recommendation from University users especially welcome. 
>
>steve
>-- 
>luiss@fiu.edu (Yeah, O.K., disclaim this!)

CRS Plus Inc., an Ontario company, makes a number of types
of robots. They have a 5-dof type that sells for around US$25K,
and a 6-dof one for around US$33K. They also make and sell
electric-servo, vacuumand pneumatoc grippers. Oh, yes; you
can buy the 3-dof wrist from the 6-dof robot as a separate
product. All their robots are controlled by a (custom) VAL-like
langauge, RAPL; it currently runs on a multi-8086 box, but
a transputerized version of their controller is due for
release soon. 

University users tend to like CRS' robots. This is because 
their controller has a pretty open architecture. While industrial
users will only need the RAPL interface to program up their 
sequences, more-sophisticated users can write C-language
subroutines that bypass and/or augment RAPL's capabilities.
It's not difficult to replace the current position-feedback
controller with a force-feedback one, for example (we're
doing just that with a CRS robot, on a project that I'm
managing), by replacing a small amount of the RAPL code
with a new module.
 
Address: CRS Plus Inc.
         P.O Box 163, Station 'A'
         830 Harrington Court
         Burlington, Ontario
         Canada L7R 3Y2
Phone: (416)-639-0086
Fax: (416)-639-4248

-- 

     Kieran A. Carroll @ U of Toronto Aerospace Institute
     uunet!attcan!utzoo!kcarroll kcarroll@zoo.toronto.edu
