ABSTRACT
It is often extremely costly to maintain part order throughout the manufacture cycle. For example, in stead of keeping parts in pallets, they are often deliv ered in bags or boxes, whence they must be picked out and sorted. A parts feeder is a machine that orients such parts before they are fed to an assembly station. Currently, the design of parts feeders is a black art that is responsible for up to 30% of the cost and 50% of workcell failures [10, for example]. Thus although part feeding accounts for a large portion of assembly cost, there is not much scientific basis for automating the process.
