(L.to R.) Mark Heinen, Omron account manager – NoCal; Lou Freund, ISE professor emeritus, adjunct professor – CIM lab director; Tom Pham, ISE adjunct professor – CIM lab specialist; Yasser Dessouky, ISE department chair.

The Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Lab in room 194 is now sporting an Omron Banner as well as a Hornet robot that is fully installed and working, looking a bit like an upside down spider. 

The College of Engineering is grateful to Omron for the company’s support of our engineering students. Omron’s VP of Marketing at the time, Matt Trowbridge, gave an SVLS talk a couple of years back (you can watch it here), visited the lab with faculty, and facilitated a key equipment grant to the college. Omron has continued to show significant support since then.

Lou Freund, CIM lab director and ISE professor emeritus, described the robot donated by Omron. “The Hornet, with its vision system, is a gantry mounted device that can “see” items, reach for them, grab them (with suction or grippers) and move them to another location (orienting as it goes).  It’s fun to watch, and we plan to have it very active during future open house events.” Find out more about the robot’s features here and here.  

He added, “Ours is mounted on a much larger gantry, and can slide along the gantry if it needs to be placed overhead in a different location.” Students will be able to work in the lab just as soon as SJSU gives the green light for post-pandemic safety and health.

A global solutions provider and an 80-year old company, Omron provides sensing, control, safety, vision, motion and robotics technologies for the automotive, food and beverage packaging, semiconductor, electronics, life sciences and infrastructure industries.