Engineering Faculty Internship: Intelligent Computer Aided Design (CAD) System for Fixture Design

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Current research has established the validity of the approach to automated fixture design whereby knowledge for a single operation is represented in an expert system. The objective of the research is to extend the knowledge to incorporate a more realistic scenario, namely, fixturing for a sequence of operations. The internship is based on established work by the principal investigator in automated design of fixtures (AutoFix). It plans to redesign the system to carry out fixturing for a finite sequence of operations. The work will commence with knowledge acquisition from practitioners in industry. A system structure to handle multiple-optioned sets of heuristics (strategy, meta, and knowledge rules) will be developed. Knowledge on design of fixtures for multiple operations will be represented in a rule/frame structure. An existing computer-aided design (CAD) system interface will be incorporated. In automated design, this work will present a method of representing and handling complex design knowledge. This method may then be extended to other systems for mechanical design. The contribution to manufacturing research is more significant as this will greatly reduce fixture design and machine set-up times. It will lay the foundation for future research in this field of fixturing for a flexible manufacturing environment.