An expert system for process planning

Abstract

Fully integrated manufacturing systems, the ultimate goal of today's production engineering research, cannot be realized without automated process planning systems. A knowledge-based expert system incorporating heuristic algorithms as well as analytical and empirical models and which can thus provide a partial replacement for human expertise is the only key to automated process planning. This paper presents an attempt to develop an expert system for automatic process planning using artificial intelligence. In this system, a structural database was incorporated with a knowledgebase for the execution of rules. The programs developed are user-friendly and highly interactive. They allow dialog between the system and the user and require only that the operator answer questions in a familiar workshop language.