Eimei Onaga President & CEO
Mr. Eimei M. Onaga is the CEO and co-founder of Innovation Matrix, Inc., a new company that provides product distribution from Asia Pacific to the USA as well as system integration and product development services with a motion and vision technology focus. Mr. Onaga also serves as Advisor to Robot Technology Osaka. (Next Generation Robotics Silicon Valley Project, Osaka, Japan)
Prior to forming Innovation Matrix, Mr. Onaga was Director of Pacific Rim Operations for Adept Technology, Inc. During his tenure, Mr. Onaga guided Adept’s Asia Pacific division to one of Asia’s leading U.S. manufacturer of industrial robots. As Director, Mr. Onaga was responsible for managing Adept’s Korea and Singapore branch offices and Adept Japan, a joint venture company. Mr Onaga also provided new product information and established distribution channels, OEM and integrator networks in Taiwan and China.
In 1992 Mr. Onaga initiated RoboVision Technology, a private venture, providing consulting and vision integration services to companies including Adept. Mr. Onaga also co-founded and was president of Universal Technology, Inc., an enterprise directed towards providing machine vision and robotics automation system integration and engineering consulting services to industrial and non-industrial manufacturers.
Mr. Onaga’s experience in the robotics engineering field began soon after finishing his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 1974, when he was hired by Mr. Joseph Engelberger, known as the “Father of Industrial Robots” as a liaison engineer at Unimation, Inc. and assigned to work with licensing efforts of Kawasaki Heavy Industry products. With that job, Mr. Onaga assisted the relationship and technology transfer between Unimation and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. His engineering work included the VAL-based controller for Unimate hydraulic robots and Unival, the new generation robot controller. Mr. Onaga also served as Engineering Manager at Unimation, Inc. participating in the formulation of broad engineering and company strategies and directions, including programs for the Westinghouse R&D Center.
Papers
Mr. Onaga authored many interesting robotics related papers in the U.S.A, Japan and Korea including:
・ ”Six-Axes Digital Torque Servo for Robotics”, Robots 11 Conference Proceeding
・ ”Controller Retrofits and Standard Specification In the Robotics Industry”, Robotics World, December 1992
・ ”FA Robot system with Integrated Vision”, Factory Automation Vol. 13, No.10
・ ”AIM Next Generation Programming Tool”, Journal of the Robot Society of Japan, 1994
・ ”Adept Robot Case Study in Food Industry”, JARA Workshop
・ ”High Speed SCARA Robot Vision System, Automation Technology”, Vol. 26, No.1
・ ”Packaging and Food Robot” Journal of the Robot Society of Japan Vol. 13. No.6
・ ”Application of Adept robots for Food and Packaging Fields”, Research Presentation No.73, Precision and Assembly Industry, 1994
・ “Intelligent Automation Deployment Method”, Automation Technology
Publications
In addition to numerous publications, Mr. Onaga is the inventor or co-inventor of seventeen U.S. patents:
・ Basic Digital Multi-axis Robot Control Having Modular Performance Expansion Capability
・ Digital Control for Multi-axis Robots
・ Digital Robot Control Having High Performance Servo Control System
・ Digital Robot Control Having Pulse Width Modulator Operable with Reduced Noise
・ Digital Robot Control Providing Pulse Width Modulation for a Brushless DC Drive
・ Digital Robot Control Having an Improved Current Sensing System for Power Amplifiers in a Digital Robot Control
・ Modular Robot Control System
・ Multiprocessor Position/Velocity Servo Control for Multi-axis Digital Robot Control System
・ Multiprocessor Torque Servo Control for Multi-axis Digital Robot Control System
・ Multi-axis Digital Robot Control Having a Backup Velocity Monitor and Protection System
・ Multi-axis Robot Control Having Improved Energy Monitoring System for Protecting Robots Against Joint Overload
・ Multi-axis Robot having Workpoint torque Control
・ Position and Velocity Feedback System for a Digital Robot Control
・ Robot Workcell Control System Having Improved Input/Output Interfacing for Better Workcell Operation
・ Robot Control System Having Adaptive Feedforward Torque Control for Improved Accuracy
・ Universal Robot Control Board Configuration
・ Off-line Teach Assist Apparatus and On-line Control Apparatus
Award
Awards include: Adept Entrepreneur Award (2000), Westinghouse Signature Award of Excellence (1985), and Westinghouse Engineering Achievement Award (1984)
Mr. Onaga received a B.S. from Syracuse University in New York and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering (emphasis on computer architecture) from Bridgeport University in Connecticut. He is the son of Taiwanese immigrants living in Japan, and grew up in Kobe, Japan. He is now a U.S. citizen and resides in California.