This volume is about automation - automation in design, automation in manufacturing, and automation in production. Automation is essen tial for increased productivity of quality products at reduced costs. That even partial or piecemeal automation of a production facility can deliver dramatic improvements in productivity has been amply demon strated in many a real-life situation. Hence, currently, great ef forts are being devoted to research and development of general as well special methodologies of and tools for automation. This volume re ports on some of these methodologies and tools. In general terms, methodologies for automation can be divided into two groups. There are situations where a process, whether open-loop or closed-loop, is fairly clearly understood. In such a situation, it is possible to create a mathematical model and to prescribe a mathe matical procedure to optimize the output. If such mathematical models and procedures are computationally tractable, we call the correspond ing automation - algorithmic or parametric programming. There is, however, a second set of situations which include process es that are not well understood and the available mathematical models are only approximate and discrete. While there are others for which mathematical procedures are so complex and disjoint that they are computationally intractable. These are the situations for which heuristics are quite suitable for automation. We choose to call such automation, knowledge-based automation or heuristic programming.

The complete shop floor automation - a "lights out factory", where workers initially set up all machines, turn off the lights, lock the door and the machine churns up the parts - remains an unfulfilled dream. Yet when we look at the enormity of the process of automation and integration even for the most simply conceived part factory, we can recognize that automation has been applied and is being applied, more so when it made sense from a cost/benefit standpoint. It is our nature to be dissatisfied with near term progress, but when we realize how short a time the tools to do that automation have been available, the progress is clearly noteworthy - considering the multitudes of factors and the environment we have to deal with. Most of the automa tion problems we confront in today's environment are multidisciplinary in nature. They require not just the knowledge and experience in various distinct fields but good cooperation from different disci plined organizations to adequately comprehend and solve such problems. In Volume III we have many examples that reflect the current state of the art techniques of robotics and plant automation. The papers for Volume III have been arranged in a logical order of automation planning, automated assembly, robot programming and simula tion, control, motion coordination, communication and networking to factories of the future.

Presents state-of-the-art research and case studies from over 150 Design & Manufacturing professionals across the globe in the areas of CAD/CAM; Product Design; Rapid Prototyping and Tooling; Manufacturing Processes; Micromachining and Miniaturisation; Mechanism and Robotics; Artificial Intelligence; and Material Handling Systems.

This volume is based on the proceedings of the 28th International Conference on CAD/CAM, Robotics and Factories of the Future. This book specially focuses on the positive changes made in the field of robotics, CAD/CAM and future outlook for emerging manufacturing units. Some of the important topics discussed in the conference are product development and sustainability, modeling and simulation, automation, robotics and handling systems, supply chain management and logistics, advanced manufacturing processes, human aspects in engineering activities, emerging scenarios in engineering education and training. The contents of this set of proceedings will prove useful to both researchers and practitioners.

Flexibility is as acceptable an objective for today's industrial community as is automation. Thus, the title of this conference proceedings volume - Flexible Automation - reflects an added emphasis to the usual industrial automation. As with general automation that has impacted every component of the manufacturing office and plant, the identity of flexible automation can possess various forms and functions. The papers in this volume have been grouped into two main categories. One category deals with implementation of so-called "intelligent manufacturing". This means use of algorithmic methods and artificial intelligence approaches to various problems encountered in practical factory automation tasks. The placement of papers into five chapters of this part cannot be very precise, due to multidisciplinary nature and constant rapid change of the field. The categories are arranged starting from problems of enhancement of current factory settings, and followed by the papers addressing more specific issues of production planning, process technology and product engineering. The fifth chapter contains papers on the very important aspects of factory automation - problems of design, simulation, operation and monitoring of manufacturing cells.