An intelligent interactive approach for assembly process planning based on hierarchical classification of parts

Assembly process planning is a difficult problem in the product design and development process. In order to reduce the difficulty of assembly process planning (APP), this paper presents an approach to finding a practical plan for assembly process through the intelligent interactive method based on hierarchical classification of parts. First, two hierarchical classification principles towards interactive disassembly are presented based on the key assembly constraint (KAC). Then, the initial assembly relationship of the product is readjusted to a new hierarchical structure which is more suitable for assembly planning according to a novel hierarchical classification algorithm. On the basis of the new hierarchy of product, an intelligent disassembly-based approach is presented, which not only takes full advantage of the ant colony algorithm for searching and constructing an initial assembly sequence with three available assembly principles, but also makes full use of the experience and knowledge of the human being for achieving a better assembly process. The intelligent disassembly approach can achieve an optimized assembly sequence, paths and scheme necessary information regarding the required assembly fixtures and tools. Finally, a case study shows that the proposed approach is feasible and practical.