Patent ID: 7515045

Claim:
An automated material handling system in automated manufacturing that optimizes manufacturing throughput by orchestrating and optimizing various components of the system, comprising: one or more wireless receivers; one or more computers coupled to the one or more wireless receivers; two or more sensor packages, each sensing motion parameters of various components of the system, comprising: a micro-electromechanical (MEMS) motion sensor, an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the MEMS motion sensor, a wireless transceiver coupled to the MEMS motion sensor, wherein each sensor package communicates with one or more wireless receivers and, when in proximity, with one or more other sensor packages, a memory coupled to the MEMS sensor and to the wireless transceiver, wherein the memory stores received data until the sensor package comes within range of the wireless receiver or another sensor package, and a clock to time-stamp data generated by the MEMS motion sensor; and one or more wireless transceivers, wherein each of the one or more wireless transceivers can communicate with the one or more sensor packages, with the one or more wireless receivers, and with one or more other wireless transceivers.