CAD-based automated assembly planning for variable products in modular production systems

The paper presents an approach allowing to utilize the flexibility of modular and reconfigurable production systems for the automated assembly of multi-variant products. Required assembly processes as well as valid assembly orders are automatically extracted from the CAD-file of the individual product. Assembly processes are described as skills and are automatically assigned to capable production resources after a simulative verification, generating an optimal assembly plan. The described planning process takes the properties and geometry of production resources, their mutual interactions as well as the layout and feasible material paths of the entire production system into account. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.