PROCESS PLANNING IN AN AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT

The need for performing process planning in an automated manufacturing environment is clear. In this paper, we discuss problems and solutions concerning the conceptualization, development, and implementation of an automatic process planning system. An automatic process planning system in such an environment requires an intelligent part analyzer, a sophisticated planning methodology, a good knowledge representation scheme, and a tight interface among interacting modules. An automatic process planning system prototype was developed for a Quick Turn-around Cell (QTC), which is an integrated software/hardware system for rapid prototyping. QTC involves the complete integration of the design, manufacturing, control, and inspection functions. Feature refinement, a form of geometric reasoning, was developed to interface between the design and other planning functions. A knowledge-based approach is taken to make decisions while planning. Additional algorithms and modules have been developed to generate the process plan and NC cutter path.