Next generation manufacturing task planner for robotic arc welding

Abstract

The trend toward manufacturing in small lot sizes continues, imposing ever new demands on the responsiveness of companies to consumer demands. To be cost competitive, this requires the designer to perform part of the manufacturing planning early in the design phase. Towards this end a number of decision support tools have been developed, providing designers with vital information regarding the manufacturability of a part or a product. Part of any manufacturability study includes the simulation of the processes involved. It is important that the designer can investigate different manufacturing scenarios and successfully choose one within the constraints of his organization or the ones he can easily access. In this paper we describe the requirements of an environment in which a part can be designed incorporating both the geometric and nongeometric information required for a complete product/manufacturing process description. This paper also describes the nonprocedural Programmable Automated Welding System (PAWS) package. This system has three major components, namely, a non-manifold solid modeler for part, equipment, and environment definition, an SQL (standard query language)-compatible database for process definition, and a robotic motion planning module capable of motion optimization, interference detection and graphic simulation. Although this system focuses on the welding process, the key components of the system are equally relevant to other manufacturing strategies such as grinding, spraying, deburring, and cutting.