Geometric design of part feeders

Preface This thesis considers problems derived from industrial engineering, and treats them in a rather theoretical setting, called ªcomputational geometryº. This work has been carried out within the research group of Mark Overmars, which is centered around applied algorithms, i.e. solving problems that are inspired by practical implications. My ®rst introduction to computational geometry was very pleasant. I discovered that the combination of geometry and algorithms was a perfect ®t for me. I decided to ask Mark Overmars, who taught the course on computational geometry, to be my supervisor for my master's degree. This turned out to be a lucky choice, and I almost automatically got involved as a PhD student in a joint research project with the industrial engineering department from U.C. Berkeley. The aim of our joint research project was to bring together computational geometry and the problems in engineering, in order to try to understand the nature of the problems, and come up with general solutions, as opposed to the ad-hoc, trial-and-error based current practices. I consider myself fortunate for having been given the opportunity to do theoretical research on such appealing problems. I visited Ken Goldberg and his students at the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research department at U.C. Berkeley twice during my PhD. The visits were both fruitful and enjoyable. I always went back home full of new ideas and problems to think of, and I enjoyed seeing how some of our ideas really worked in practice. In Chapter 6, I include a picture of a real (industrial) device that was built by Ken's students, and evolved from our joint efforts. At the department in Utrecht, I was happy to ®nd a young and lively group of computational geometers. Within this group, my position as a PhD student was v created to continue the work of Frank van der Stappen. During my PhD, he was my co-supervisor. In Utrecht Mark, Frank and I spent a lot of time together thinking deep thoughts. The result of our joint efforts and a lot of perspiration ®nally evolved into this thesis. I hope that the reader can taste the pleasure that I had writing it.