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Automated process planning: reasoning from first principles based on geometric relation constraints

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2009

Cornelius Nevrinceanu
Affiliation:
The Productivity Center and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, MN, U.S.A.
Vassilios Morellas
Affiliation:
The Productivity Center and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, MN, U.S.A.
Max Donath
Affiliation:
The Productivity Center and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, MN, U.S.A.

Abstract

While previous work in automated process planning established plan ordering on an empirical basis alone, we derive our process plans based on the Holding-Under-Uncertainty Principle. We will introduce the principle, and we will describe the operational requirements needed to make this principle implementable in practice. The principle takes into account the form and geometric tolerances needed to locate features in deriving plan steps. Rather than just focusing on technological features, our planning strategy is controlled by the geometric relationships among features. By implementing a constraint propagation paradigm, we ensure that the tolerances accumulated in generating the part geometry remain within the tolerances specified by the design.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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