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Foreword

They saw, cut, drill, guide, grind, install, move, assemble and put letterings on cakes as well. They work at breathtaking speeds, with enormous precision and extraordinary reliability. They never get tired even though they often work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Plain and simple they are the guarantor for the correct functioning of a modern industrial business, as we know it today.The talk is of industrial robots – Epson industrial robots. It was the SEIKO Corporation that gave rise to them: The accuracy and speed requirements have now become so high since the rst quartz watch was produced by SEIKO that production can only be guaranteed if robots are used. It never has been and never will be just a question of precision and speed but exibility as well that is absolutely decisive with regard to the success or failure of an automation solution. The quality of Epson robot systems is both renowned and highly regarded. Epson robot systems are sub-divided into three categories. The rst group are the so-called linear axis modules. These robots are the simp-lest and easiest to control, because they enable the simple combination of different linear axes to form a system that is suited to a particular application. The kinematics of the second group, the so-called Scara robots, are able to emulate the manoeuvrability of a human arm. The last group comprises the 6-axis robots. The six axes in these robots have six degrees of freedom and are especially well known for their use in the automotive industry. The advantage of using these robots lies in the fact that all arm movements and orientations, including the hands, can be reproduced. This means that a just a single machine is sufcient to complete a sequence of complex movements such as those needed to t small or costly components.