Technology >> CEO Interviews >> September 12, 2001
BRIAN R. CARLISLE is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Adept
Technology, Inc. He is also currently serving on the Board of Directors
of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, and on the
Technology, Manufacturing and Infrastructure Committee of the American
Electronics Association, and the Board of Directors of the National
Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing. He is the past President of the
U.S. Robotic Industries Association and the former co-Chairman of the
Automation Forum of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.
He served as the General Chairman of the IEEE International Conference
on Robotics and Automation held in San Francisco in April 2000, with
over 1,000 attendees. In 2002, he was elected by the IEEE Board of
Directors as an IEEE Fellow for contributions in industrial robotics.
Adept Technology manufactures and sells industrial robots, vision
systems and simulation and control software. The company has offices in
the US, Europe and Asia. Adept products are used in automated assembly,
packaging, and material applications for the electronics, automotive,
medical products and food industries. Adept was incorporated in June
1983 when it purchased the West Coast Division of Animation Inc. from
Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Mr. Carlisle was General Manager of
the Division. Adept was co-founded by Mr. Carlisle and Dr. Bruce
Shimano, formerly Unimation's Director of Software Development. As
General Manager of the West Coast Division of Unimation from 1977 to
1983, Mr. Carlisle was responsible for new product strategy and
development for Unimation's electric manipulators, their control
systems, sensing systems, and advanced applications. This group
developed the VAL and VAL-II robot control languages (written by Dr.
Bruce Shimano), the Puma 550, 560, and 260 model robots, and performed
research in force sensing, mobile robots and vision. Mr. Carlisle began
working with robots when he graduated from Stanford and joined Vicarm
Inc. in 1975. Vicarm was a small firm started by Victor Scheinman to
manufacture laboratory manipulators for various research groups around
the world. Mr. Carlisle holds BS and MS degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from Stanford University. He also holds several patents,
including a patent for the AdeptOne, the world's first direct-drive
robot. Profile
evolution?
Mr. Carlisle: Adept is a company that specializes in precision assembly
and material-handling automation. Some
