Adept Technology Inc., a Livermore, Calif., maker of robotic, motion control and machine vision technology, announced a strategic partnership with Singapore-based MMI Systems Pte Ltd., a subsidiary of MMI Holdings Ltd. MMI is an electromechanical contract manufacturer that also has operations in Thailand, Malaysia and China. Adept said its initial order from MMI -- for 22 Adept Cobra s600 vision-guided robots -- is the first part of a multiphase program that could yield several additional lines over the next two years. Adept also recently announced the election of Mike Kelly as chairman of its board. Kelly is CEO of Kinsale Associates LLC, a Silicon Valley merchant banking firm. Previously, he was vice chairman of Broadview Jefferies investment bank. . . . Boston-based infrared (IR) camera maker Flir Systems will sponsor a series of events to inform IR camera users about advances in the field. The series will be held across North America throughout 2006. Topics will include thermal imaging technology, high-quality affordable IR cameras and the ABCs of selecting the best camera for the application. Admission is free, but registration is required. For a schedule and details, visit: www.flirthermography.com/news/seminars.asp; or contact Martha Wouralis or Jon Richards at (800) 254-0633; email: [email protected] . . . JDSU announced it has made a definitive agreement to sell its manufacturing operations in Ottawa, Canada, to its contract manufacturing partner Fabrinet in order to accelerate its restructuring. "This transaction marks the final phase of our plan to transition all optical communications assembly manufacturing to Asia," said Debbie Shoquist, vice president of global operations for JDSU. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, after which Fabrinet will manage ongoing production and the Asian transfer activities currently performed at the Ottawa site. Nonmanufacturing activities at that site are unaffected by this agreement, JDSU said. Fabrinet, a San Francisco-based engineering and electromechanical manufacturing services company, has been providing manufacturing services to JDSU since 2000. In 2005, it acquired three JDS Uniphase manufacturing sites, in Mountain Lakes and Ewing, N.J., and in Fuzhou, China; and in 2004, its facilities in Singapore and in Bintan, Indonesia. . . . Kuka Robotics has installed what it claims is the first stainless steel robot in a North American food plant. Kuka reseller Forte Automation Systems installed the KR 15 SL system in a dairy product manufacturing facility of Dean Foods, a division of Pet Dairies LLC, for its dairy case packing process. Kuka said it has also signed Transbotics Corp., a Charlotte, N.C., provider of automated guided vehicles and automation technology, to use its robots in automatic material handling systems.