A framework of auto body assembly qualitative simulation system

The body assembly process design (BAPD) system is currently under development at the laboratory of Auto Body Manufacture Technology Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. To ensure that assembly issues have been properly considered in the conceptual design phase, different methods, procedures and tools should be developed. The paper gives a brief view of the system architecture of the BAPD system, and the paper will present a framework to carry qualitative simulation procedure and conduct hierarchical qualitative simulation to analyze and predict assembly variation flow with limited parameters and fuzzy knowledge; the system conducts qualitative information acquisition of physical parameters of assembly features, and obtains cardinal factors influence the variation results by qualitative analysis in the assembly process. An analytical case is discussed to explain the function of qualitative analysis.