Adept and Sony Partner to Embed Sony Technology Into Production Pilot Virtual Factory Software.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

San Jose, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2000

Process Planning and Design Software with Design for Assembly and

Dis-Assembly Technology Available to Worldwide Manufacturers

Adept Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADTK), a leading supplier of factory automation products, today announced its agreement between Sony Corporation and Adept Japan that gives Adept worldwide technology licensing rights for Sony's Design for Assembly/dis-assembly Cost-effectiveness (DAC) technology. The agreement marks the first time any assembly process knowledge has been embedded in a 3-D digital mock up environment. Adept will embed the technology into its Production PILOT process planning and design software, developed by Adept's SILMA division. Production PILOT with the DAC technology was recently previewed at the 1999 International Robot Exhibition in October in Ariake, Japan. This cooperation between Adept and Sony will provide designers and engineers with a new set of tools to produce product designs for ease of assembly that will lead to faster production ramp rates with higher yields.

Sony DAC is an assembly/dis-assembly and cost effectiveness rating methodology or scoring system used by designers to measure and analyze the effectiveness of their factory assembly designs. It is a scoring system that rates product designs for ease of assembly. This methodology has been developed over a period of 15 years to capture the accumulated knowledge within Sony on how to design products for ease of assembly.

Production PILOT is a new 3D CAD-based assembly process planning and design software previewed recently at the Assembly Technology Expo 99. It is the only fully interactive suite of its kind that gives engineers and designers the ability to analyze and verify assembly processes while simultaneously finding and correcting problems long before investing in capital equipment or fabricating any parts.

"This partnership provides an unprecedented product and service to the engineering desktop. The user of SILMA's Production PILOT with Sony's DAC methodology gets the unique capability of PILOT's process planning enhanced by Sony's process knowledge," said Charlie Duncheon, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Adept Technology. "DAC is hundreds of man-years of manufacturing process knowledge that has made Sony the premier electronics manufacturer in the world. We are truly empowering the product designer to optimize the manufacturing cost of their design."

Adept will sell the Production PILOT product embedded with the DAC technology worldwide to manufacturers operating in the electronics, semiconductor, appliances, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, food processing, and automotive components industries beginning in January of 2000.

Adept Technology, Inc., founded in 1983, is America's largest manufacturer of industrial robots. Adept designs and manufactures intelligent automation hardware and software products for manufacturers in the electronics, semiconductor, appliances, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, food processing, and automotive components industries. The company provides a broad, flexible line of software intensive, computer-driven automation products for assembly, material handling and packaging applications. Adept Technology product and service information is available at its worldwide web site http://www.adept.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties including but not limited to, the potential delays associated with the development and introduction of new products or software releases; the potential fluctuations in the company's quarterly and annual results of operations; the cyclicality of capital spending of the company's customers; the company's dependence on the continued growth of the intelligent automation market; the risks associated with sole or single sources of supply and lengthy procurement lead times; the company's highly competitive industry; and rapid technological change within the company's industry.

For a further discussion of risk factors relating to the company's business, see the company's Form 10Q for the quarter ended December 26, 1998, and the company's annual report on Form 10K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1998, including the discussion in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations filed as an exhibit thereto, filed on September 28, 1998.

The Adept logo is a registered trademark of Adept Technology, Inc. Adept and Production PILOT are trademarks of Adept Technology, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective companies.