AutoAssem: An Automated Assembly Planning System for Complex Products

To automate assembly planning for complex products such as aircraft components, an assembly planning and simulation system called AutoAssem has been developed. In this paper, its system architecture is presented; the main components and the key technologies in each component are discussed. The core functions of the system that have been focused include Digital Assembly Modeling, Assembly Sequence Planning (ASP), Path Planning, Visualization, and Simulation. In contrast to existing assembly planning systems, one of the novelties of the system is it allows the assembly plans be automatically generated from a CAD assembly model with minimal manual interventions. Within the system, new methodologies have been developed to: (i) create Assembly Relationship Matrices; (ii) plan assembly sequences; (iii) generate assembly paths; and (iv) visualize and simulate assembly plans. To illustrate the application of the system, the assembly of a worm gear reducer is used as an example throughout this paper for demonstration purpose. AutoAssem has been successfully applied to virtual assembly design for various complex products so far.