(Continuation/extension of the past few Challenges) By now you've designed palletized fixturing to achieve single-piece flow for subtractive manufacturing. You've also figured out how to have a robot load and unload pallets from a CNC machine. And finally, you've explored what the fixturing might look like with added functionality via programmable fixtures.

For this challenge, you are tasked with incorporating material handling tasks into the functionality of your robotic machine tending setup, with the desired end result of having the robot also load and unload products from and into the fixturing. Assume the freshly-machined pallet coming out of the 3-Axis CNC machine is dry, clean, and free of any chips/debris/burrs/etc.

Develop/consider/analyze:

• How would the existing fixturing need to change (if at all) so a robot could successfully & efficiently interact with it (ex: clamp/unclamp parts)?

• How could the robot pick up & move the individual dice blocks?

• What additional tooling/equipment/fixturing would you need for the robot to reposition/rotate the parts from one operation to another?

• What might the fixtures look like, depending on the number of programmable axes?

• What are the 8-step cycle(s) of fixturing with your new process(es)?