Laitram, LLC

Institut National De La Sante Et De La Recherche Medicale

Bernard Bretagnolle

Ronald H Burch

Mark E Sutton

Warren E Cancienne, Jr

Soumitra Sengupta

Somsak S Rodboon

Pierre Jutier

James D Arthur

Claire Rubat Du Merac

A computer-controlled robot cutting system for making angled or beveled cuts along a preselected path in a workpiece having a generally planar cutting surface. A cutting knife, such as a high-intensity fluid jet, is pivotably mounted in a support frame having two pairs of arcuate guides disposed at right angles to each other for motor-driven rotation of the cutting knife about orthogonal axes. The centers of curvature of both guides lie on a critical plane containing a pivot point about which the cutting knife pivots. An opposing workpiece gantry with horizontal and vertical slides for motor-driven translation of the workpiece along two axes also includes means for holding the workpiece such that its surface to be cut faces the cutting knife and lies in the critical plane. The workpiece is thus translated to define the cutting path on the obverse surface, while the cutting knife is pivoted to define the entry angle of the cut along the cutting path. Four motion controllers under computer control coordinate the motors driving each axis of rotation or translation. Because the obverse cutting surface of the workpiece is maintained in the critical plane containing the pivot point, pivoting of the knife does not change its entry point in the cutting surface, thereby simplifying motion control algorithms. Furthermore, because the cutting knife is pivoted and the workpiece is translated, the relatively massive gearing and movable frame structures are distributed between the cutting knife section and the workpiece gantry, lowering the inertia and enabling the use of lighter-duty motors.

Robot cutting system

An imaging system includes a method and apparatus for use in processing fish body sections that have been transversely cut. The system uses a frame with a pair of shrouds, each having an interior space that contains an illumination system for illuminating the fish section. A pair of video cameras housed respectively within the shrouds scan opposed flat sides of the fish section to produce images of the respective sides. Screens move behind the fish section in sequential fashion as each camera scans the fish section.

Imaging system for use in processing transversely cut fish body sections

An apparatus for the acquisition and restoration in real time of a framed picture as disclosed. This apparatus utilizes an automaton and a slave circuit of the automaton for the addressing of a memory through the use of digital values from an analog-digital converter for analog picture acquisition signals. The digital values are processed and supplied to a digital-analog converter for the display of a picture on a display unit. Addressing outputs of the automaton are connected to the memory with the outputs of the slave circuit being connected to the synchronization inputs of both the analog-digital and the digital-analog converters in order to display picture corresponding to the processed digital values.

Apparatus for the acquisition and restoration in real time of a picture

Growing community of inventors

Grenoble, France

Bernard Bretagnolle