Computer and sensor technology has changed very rapidly during the last fourteen years and GeckoSystems engineering staff has done a good job in keeping up with these changes.
Here is an example of how GeckoSystems implements cutting edge technology, uses it to reduce the cost of their products, and acts as a consultant to other industries.
[quote]
There has been a significant reduction in the fundamental cost structure of indoor mobile robots that we have embraced. For nearly thirty years industrial robot work cells have routinely employed "structured light machine vision" systems to determine orientation and location of objects such that robot arms could pick up for insertion into CNC machining systems, placement on conveyors, pallets, etc. Typically these rather elaborate machine vision systems cost $20-25,000 per robot work cell.
Last fall Microsoft introduced a runaway best selling "depth camera" called the Kinect for use with their video game system, the Xbox. Using technology they licensed from PrimeSense, Microsoft achieved a retail price point of $149.95. The PrimeSense technology has dramatically reduced the decades old cost of structured light machine vision systems by two orders (100:1) of magnitude. This is akin to the dramatic cost reduction in electronics when that industry went from discrete transistors with one per package, to many thousands of transistors in a single integrated circuit (IC). In retrospect, this transistor to IC paradigm shift dramatically changed the world in which we live.
PrimeSense's invention of a low cost, high volume manufacturable "depth camera" now enables the cost structure for personal robots like GeckoSystems' CareBot to go down from a retail of $12-15,000 to approximately $10-12,000 each. That is an impressive retail cost reduction of 15-20%. To achieve that reality, we invented the GeckoImager™ early this year to replace our less robust CompoundedSensorArray™ previously used by us as a low cost mobile robot machine vision solution for our product line. Further, this new low cost vision system has opened up new markets for us, such as the retrofit upgrade of existing power wheelchairs to be collision proof with the incorporation of our automatic self-navigation software, GeckoNav™. The upgrading of large numbers of powered personal mobility systems represents "low hanging fruit" for GeckoSystems as demonstrated by the prototyping of one --and soon to be two wheelchairs-- for Imasen Engineering Corporation. [/quote]
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