Survey on computer-aided process planning

Computer-aided process planning (CAPP) is the application of the computer to assist process planners in the planning functions. It is considered as the key technology for computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) integration. Nowadays, due to dynamic market and business globalization, CAPP research faces new challenges. In this article, an attempt is made to provide a comprehensive survey on CAPP based on features, knowledge, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms (GA), fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic, Petri nets (PN), agent, Internet, standard for the exchange of product data (STEP)-compliant method, and functional blocks (FB) method/technologies for last 12 years (2002-2013). The aim of this paper is to provide an up-to-date survey with graphical representation for easy understanding of the past, present, and future of CAPP. The design of this paper includes a brief introduction of CAPP and its approaches, methods/technologies of CAPP, survey on CAPP, discussion, and conclusion.