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

目前的研究已经证实了自动夹具设计方法的有效性，即在专家系统中表示单个操作的知识。研究的目标是扩展知识以纳入更现实的情景，即为一系列操作进行固定。实习是基于首席调查员在夹具自动化设计(Autofix)方面的既定工作。它计划重新设计该系统，以便为有限序列的操作进行夹具。这项工作将从工业从业者那里获取知识开始。将开发一个系统结构来处理多个可选的启发式规则集(策略、元和知识规则)。多项作业的夹具设计知识将以规则/框架结构表示。现有的计算机辅助设计(CAD)系统界面将纳入其中。在自动化设计中，这项工作将提供一种表示和处理复杂设计知识的方法。这种方法可以推广到机械设计的其他系统。这对制造研究的贡献更大，因为这将大大减少夹具设计和机器安装时间。这将为今后柔性制造环境下夹具领域的研究奠定基础。

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.