A semiconductor wafer mapping apparatus comprising: a frame forming a wafer load opening communicating with a load station for a substrate carrier disposed to hold more than one wafers vertically distributed in the substrate carrier for loading through the wafer load opening; a movable arm movably mounted to the frame so as to move relative to the wafer load opening and having at least one end effector movably mounted to the movable arm to load wafers from the substrate carrier through the wafer load opening; an image acquisition system including an array of cameras arranged on a common support and each camera is fixed with respect to the common support that is static with respect to each camera of the array of cameras, wherein each respective camera is positioned with a field of view (FOVA, FOVB, FOVC) disposed to view, through the wafer load opening with the common support positioned by the movable arm at a common position (CP), corresponding different separate part (RA, RB, RC) of the substrate carrier each with at least one corresponding wafer slot (1-25) different from at least one other wafer slot (1-25) in each other corresponding different separate part of the substrate carrier, each of the corresponding different and separate parts being viewed, through the wafer load opening from the common position, by each respective camera, so that an image captured by each respective camera of the corresponding different separate part excludes each other different separate part viewed by each other respective camera, and each wafer in each slot in the substrate carrier is imaged by the array of cameras with the common support at the common position. a frame forming a wafer load opening communicating with a load station for a substrate carrier disposed to hold more than one wafers vertically distributed in the substrate carrier for loading through the wafer load opening; a movable arm movably mounted to the frame so as to move relative to the wafer load opening and having at least one end effector movably mounted to the movable arm to load wafers from the substrate carrier through the wafer load opening; an image acquisition system including an array of cameras arranged on a common support and each camera is fixed with respect to the common support that is static with respect to each camera of the array of cameras, wherein each respective camera is positioned with a field of view (FOVA, FOVB, FOVC) disposed to view, through the wafer load opening with the common support positioned by the movable arm at a common position (CP), corresponding different separate part (RA, RB, RC) of the substrate carrier each with at least one corresponding wafer slot (1-25) different from at least one other wafer slot (1-25) in each other corresponding different separate part of the substrate carrier, each of the corresponding different and separate parts being viewed, through the wafer load opening from the common position, by each respective camera, so that an image captured by each respective camera of the corresponding different separate part excludes each other different separate part viewed by each other respective camera, and each wafer in each slot in the substrate carrier is imaged by the array of cameras with the common support at the common position. <EOS>