Matthias Reichenbach

Development of a heuristic Process Planning Tool for Sequencing NC Machining Operations extended by the Potential Field Analysis

Abstract Nowadays, the process planning for sequencing NC (numerical control) machining operations is still done manually in principle. In the last decade several approaches for the automatic process planning based on artificial intelligence (AI) and heuristic algorithm are introduced. Nevertheless, the planner has to modify and acknowledge the generated work plans. In order to close this gap, a concept for enabling the automatic preparation for feature-based work plans with methods known from the graph theory is introduced in this paper. Therefore the work plan is mapped into a direct graph. As a result, it is possible to use algorithms to find the shortest path and a Hamiltonian path as an optimal sequenced solution. The potential field analysis will be used in order to compare the generated work plans. Therefore a workflow including knowledge representation, knowledge processing and an algorithm for computing the process plans are outlined. A demonstrator completes this paper.