A cooperative agent modelling approach for process planning

A well designed computer-aided process planning (CAPP) system bridges the gap between CAD and CAM. A number of systems have recently been developed relying on a standalone expert system. However, because of over-complexity, many such systems cannot be effectively applied to industrial enterprises in practice. Moreover, the modern computer integrated manufacturing system (CIM) requires the CAPP system to be extendible and flexible for practical industrial applications. It is hardly possible to develop the extensive industrial CAPP system by using only one large expert system. To overcome these weaknesses, a new cooperative agent model is presented for process planning in this paper that satisfies five major requirements: Autonomy, Flexibility, Interoperability, Modularity and Scalability. In accordance with this framework proposed, a machining cooperative process planning system (Machining CoCAPP) is specifically developed for demonstration purpose. The system modelling, agent structure design, cooperation and coordination mechanism, and case study of the Machining CoCAPP are presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.