Assembly process modeling mechanism based on the product hierarchy

Assembly process modeling mechanism, which contains all the process elements, is crucial for assembly process planning. This study proposes an assembly process modeling mechanism based on the product hierarchy, and the assembly-by-disassembly approach is used for constructing the assembly process model. Firstly, three stage for process models called disassembly process model (DPM), rough assembly process model (RAPM), and finish assembly process model (FAPM) are presented, and the process information, such as the motion information, process marks is given. Secondly, the operation semantics for assembly process model is proposed to describe the physical constraints between parts and components. Thirdly, the establishing procedure of assembly process model is given, which includes establishing process of disassembly task tree, design process of disassembly process node, mapping process from DPM to RAPM, and mapping process from RAPM to FAPM four subprocesses. At last, a prototype assembly process planning system, called AMTProcesser, is developed based on the proposed modeling mechanism.