Flexible Automation and Integrated Manufacturing 1994

ISBN Print: 978-1-56700-018-4

KNOWLEDGE-BASED STRATEGIES IN DESIGN FOR AUTOMATION

DOI: 10.1615/FAIM1994.320
pages 321-330

Abstract

The need to design for automation has encouraged the development of interactive knowledge based systems whose role is to encourage the designer to design products which can be readily assembled by automatic means. To date, emphasis has been placed on the design of detailed components which can be fed to the assembly point by standard automatic feeding equipment and on overall assembly configurations which minimise assembly movement, maximise accessibility, reduce assembly operation complexity and generally reduce assembly times. Many of the design for assembly systems presently in use are stand alone systems which require considerable interactive input from the designer (or design team) at the concept design stage but some of these processes can be automated if the CAD system is suitably configured to handle such analysis. This paper outlines the problems associated with DFA and describes the development of a new knowledge based modelling system which addresses some of these problems.