Raw material costs and limited material availability and quality have created
significant interest in and opportunities for the application of nondestructive
evaluation techniques to improve wood processing technologies. The incentives come
from the desire to 1) manufacture the highest valued product, 2) conserve the
amount of raw material used, 3)...
In the past half century, industrial robots have developed a strong presence in manufacturing. They now commonly perform tasks such as materials handling, assembly, welding, and painting. Unfortunately robotic machining tasks have seen limited deployments. The majority of machining robots are designed for soft materials like wood or plastic and...