For one-quarter/semester, freshman through senior-level courses in two-and four-year colleges in Introduction to Robotics, Manufacturing Automation, or Production Design.
Featuring a careful balance of theory and application techniques, this introduction to robotics shows students how to design and build a robot-driven automated work cell―from selection of hardware through programming of the devices to economic justification of the project. Written from a manufacturing perspective, it does not address robots in an isolated manner, but rather explores the broad topic of industrial work cells that contain a robot―including robot automation and all the other technology needed in the automated work cell to integrate the robot with the work environment and with the enterprise data base.
James A. Rehg, CMfgE, is an associate professor of engineering at Penn State-Altoona. He earned a BS and MS in electrical engineering from St. Louis University and has completed additional graduate work at Wentworth Institute, University of Missouri, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and Clemson University. Before moving to Penn State, he was director of the Computer Integrated Manufacturing project and department head of CAD/CAM and Machine Tool Technology at Tri-County Technical College, and previous to that he was director of Academic Computing and the Manufacturing Productivity Center at Trident Technical College. Professor Rehg also served as director of the Robotics Resource Center at Piedmont Technical College and department head of Electronic Engineering Technology at Forest Park Community College. His industrial experience includes work in instrumentation at McDonnell Douglas Corporation and consulting in the areas of computer-aided design, robotics, computer-integrated manufacturing, and programmable logic controllers.
Professor Rehg has written five texts on robotics and automation and many articles on subjects related to training in automation and robotics. His most recent text is Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 2nd ed., with coauthor Henry Kraebber of Purdue University, published by Prentice Hall in 2000. Professor Rehg has received numerous state awards for excellence in teaching, including the outstanding instructor in the nation by the Association of Community College Trustees and the Penn State Engineering Society Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998.
