Maxon is working with National Instruments Corp. (NI), Austin, TX, on the design and development of ViNI, a robotics platform that supports such products as the Da Vinci Surgical robot. ViNI is driven exclusively by Maxon motors, gearheads, and encoders and NI CompactRIO embedded controls. The companies have worked together to integrate NI LabVIEW graphical software with Maxon's high-precision drive systems, said to free roboticists from the integration workload. Maxon Precision Motors, Fall River, MA, (508) 677-0520.