Automation includes much more than manufacturing: security, laboratory automation, home utomation, food processing, and almost any repetitive task that can be machine controlled.  I'll review some of these exciting new applications and then focus on manufacturing.

Today, automation for manufacturing is where computer technology was in the early 1960's, a patchwork of ad-hoc solutions lacking a rigorous scientific methodology.

CAD has progressed a long way toward elegant modeling of mechanical parts and behavior.  What
we need is an associated "science" of automation: rigorous abstractions for the required handling, assembly, inspection, and storage of parts.

Over the past decade, researchers have made progress, developing a variety of algorithmic models and results for part feeding and fixturing.  I'll review selected results including a new framework for fixturing deformable parts and new geometric primitives for vibratory bowl feeders, and propose several open problems for future research.