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Celera Motion Launches World’s First Platform to Simplify PCB Design Work for Robotic Solutions
March 17, 2023 | Business WireEstimated reading time: 1 minute

Celera Motion, a business unit of Novanta Inc., announced its launch of Summit Designer, an innovative new tool that delivers standard market-ready PCB designs for robotic applications that save significant cost, work and time to market.
Summit Designer is an open-source PCB design library featuring a diverse and vast offering of market-ready application-specific PCBs that are designed, supported, and updated by experts. It is an optimal way to effortlessly develop compact robot joints, multi-axis AGV/AMR systems, industrial end-effectors, and surgical robots, among many others.
It is the first of its kind offered on the market.
“Summit Designer allows developers to create an ideal application using tested and proven PCB Designs,” said Marc Vila, Director of Strategy and Business Development at Celera Motion. “This ingenious new platform cuts development time, decreases the chances of error and reduces prototype iterations. That’s more important than ever as markets evolve faster and grow more competitive. Unexpected delays can be catastrophic to projects.”
Summit Designer is exceptionally easy to use. Every design is open-source and consists of a complete, fully customizable and fully documented Altium project.
Users only have to choose and add their desired modules to create a fully functional servo drive design for a market-ready robot. The options are designed to satisfy the most common requirements, such as type of connectors, communication protocols, safety functions and motor and encoder specifications. Users then receive a fully scalable and modular download file, ready to edit at their convenience. Experts are available to answer questions and guide users.
The entire process takes just five simple steps:
- Bring an idea for a new motion control application to the Summit Designer website.
- Check the PCB designs there to find the one that fits your needs.
- Customize it with our in-depth application guide.
- Talk to our experts and get support whenever needed.
- Plug into a Summit Drive and go to market.
“Summit Designer was developed by top experts in motion control applications and robotics,” Vila said. “Our goal was to make the process as simple, flexible and seamless as possible. Each project allows for high customization and provides all the necessary tools in a single download.”
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Sweeney Ng - CEE PCBSuggested Items
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08/28/2025 | Stephen V. Chavez, Siemens EDAPlacement of PCB components is far more than just fitting components onto a board. It’s a strategic and critical foundational step, often called “floor planning,” that profoundly impacts the board’s performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost. Floor planning ties into the solvability perspective, with performance and manufacturability being the other two competing perspectives for addressing and achieving success in PCB design.
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08/26/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonI’d like to share a harsh truth, and I say this as a friend: PCB designers are often their own worst enemy. It’s rarely the complexity of the circuit, the last-minute changes from mechanical, the limited enclosure space, or the ever-expanding list of design rules that send projects to the dust heap of failed boards. More often, it's our own decisions, made too quickly and narrowly, and with too little foresight, that sabotage an otherwise good design.
Target Condition: Floor Planning Without a Floor
08/27/2025 | Kelly Dack -- Column: Target ConditionBy a show of hands, how many PCB designers have been asked to start a layout without a board outline, keep-out zones, or even height constraints? How many have had to work within a specific enclosure before the schematic was finalized? If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Starting a PCB layout without critical constraints is like hiring an interior designer to buy furniture and carpet for a house you haven’t even purchased yet, or, even worse, trying to fit four bedrooms' worth of furniture in a one-room cabin.
I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
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