Quality- and cost-driven assembly technique selection and geometrical tolerance allocation for mechanical structure assembly

The assembly process planning has been the subject of extensive scientific work, mainly due to the multiple aspects involved from geometrical matters to operational research concerns. However, very few issues about assembly technique selection are addressed. The aim of this paper is to propose a method to select an assembly technique for each joint of a product and to allocate geometrical tolerances accordingly. This is achieved by solving a multi-objective optimization problem to minimize the cost and the non-conformity associated with the assembly plan. The potential benefits of the method are illustrated on a case study representing the assembly of a simple mechanical structure.     

A complexity model for sequence planning in mixed-model assembly lines

Sequence planning is an important problem in assembly line design. It is to determine the order of assembly tasks to be performed sequentially. Significant research has been done to find good sequences based on various criteria, such as process time, investment cost, and product quality. This paper discusses the selection of optimal sequences based on complexity induced by product variety in mixed-model assembly line. The complexity was defined as operator choice complexity, which indirectly measures the human performance in making choices, such as selecting parts, tools, fixtures, and assembly procedures in a multi-product, multi-stage, manual assembly environment. The complexity measure and its model for assembly lines have been developed in an earlier paper by the authors. According to the complexity models developed, assembly sequence determines the directions in which complexity flows. Thus proper assembly sequence planning can reduce complexity. However, due to the difficulty of handling the directions of complexity flows in optimization, a transformed network flow model is formulated and solved based on dynamic programming. Methodologies developed in this paper extend the previous work on modeling complexity, and provide solution strategies for assembly sequence planning to minimize complexity.     

Optimal assembly plan generation: a simplifying approach

The main difficulty in the overall process of optimal assembly plan generation is the great number of different ways to assemble a product (typically thousands of solutions). This problem confines the application of most existing automated planning methods to products composed of only a limited number of components. The presented method of assembly plan generation belongs to the approach called “disassembly” and is founded on a new representation of the assembly process, with introduction of a new concept, the equivalence of binary trees. This representation allows to generate the minimal list of all non-redundant (really different) assembly plans. Plan generation is directed by assembly operation constraints and plan-level performance criteria. The method was tested for various assembly applications and compared to other generation approaches. Results show a great reduction in the combinatorial explosion of the number of plans. Therefore, this simplifying approach of assembly sequence modeling allows to handle more complex products with a large number of parts.     

Assembly sequence planning of rigid and flexible parts

Assembly sequence planning (ASP) is the process of computing a sequence of assembly motions for constituent parts of an assembled final product. ASP is proven to be NP-hard and thus its effective and efficient solution has been a challenge for the researchers in the field. Despite the fact that most assembled products like ships, aircrafts and automobiles are composed of rigid and flexible parts, no work exists for assembly/disassembly sequence planning of flexible parts. This paper lays out a theoretical ground for modeling the deformability of flexible assembly parts by introducing the concept of Assembly stress matrix (ASM) to describe interference relations between parts of an assembly and the amount of compressive stress needed for assembling flexible parts. Also, the Scatter Search (SS) optimization algorithm is customized for this problem to produce high-quality solutions by simultaneously minimizing both the maximum applied stress exerted for performing assembly operations and the number of assembly direction changes. The parameters of this algorithm are tuned by a TOPSIS-Taguchi based tuning method. A number of ASP problems with rigid and flexible parts were solved by the presented SS and other algorithms like Genetic and Memetic algorithms, Simulated Annealing, Breakout Local Search, Iterated Local Search, and Multistart Local Search, and the results and their in-depth statistical analyses showed that the SS outperformed other algorithms by producing the best-known or optimal solutions with highest success rates.     

Towards online reinforced learning of assembly sequence planning with interactive guidance systems for industry 4.0 adaptive manufacturing

Literature shows that reinforcement learning (RL) and the well-known optimization algorithms derived from it have been applied to assembly sequence planning (ASP); however, the way this is done, as an offline process, ends up generating optimization methods that are not exploiting the full potential of RL. Today’s assembly lines need to be adaptive to changes, resilient to errors and attentive to the operators’ skills and needs. If all of these aspects need to evolve towards a new paradigm, called Industry 4.0, the way RL is applied to ASP needs to change as well: the RL phase has to be part of the assembly execution phase and be optimized with time and several repetitions of the process. This article presents an agile exploratory experiment in ASP to prove the effectiveness of RL techniques to execute ASP as an adaptive, online and experience-driven optimization process, directly at assembly time. The human-assembly interaction is modelled through the input-outputs of an assembly guidance system built as an assembly digital twin. Experimental assemblies are executed without pre-established assembly sequence plans and adapted to the operators’ needs. The experiments show that precedence and transition matrices for an assembly can be generated from the statistical knowledge of several different assembly executions. When the frequency of a given subassembly reinforces its importance, statistical results obtained from the experiments prove that online RL applications are not only possible but also effective for learning, teaching, executing and improving assembly tasks at the same time. This article paves the way towards the application of online RL algorithms to ASP.     

Assembly sequence planning based on structure cells in open design

Advances in computer network technologies have enabled firms to increasingly utilize external resources to remain competitive. Based on the function-behavior-structure cell (FBSC) modeling and computer network technologies, consumers with design knowledge and experience, called co-designers in this research, can involve in the process of open design (OD) to share their requirements, experiences and knowledge. The structure cells (SCs) provided by the co-designers in OD and the relationships among them are critical for generating the optimal design scheme and assembly sequence planning. However, the existing assembly sequence planning (ASP) approaches mainly focus on identification of the assembly plan based on precedence relations of operations from the predefined parts in the design scheme without considering the utilization of resources available in OD. In this study, a new approach for ASP based on SCs in OD is proposed to tackle this problem. First, the assembly features of the SCs and their matching rules are described in OD, and an approach for calculating the matching intensity between SCs is developed for identifying the assembly relationships between SCs. The design scheme is generated according to the SCs and their assembly relationships. Second, the base part of the design scheme is determined by its correlation degree with other parts. The feasible assembly sequences are derived by reversing the disassembly sequences. As the increase of the number of parts in design scheme will result in the combinatorial explosion of feasible assembly sequences, a particle swarm optimization algorithm is presented to achieve the optimal assembly sequence. A case study is provided to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

多目标粒子群算法在混装线再平衡中的应用

企业对产品进行创新改进,带来装配线上装配任务的变化,从而造成已平衡装配线的失衡。针对上述变化给企业混流装配线带来的影响进行了研究,以最小化生产节拍,工作站间的负荷,和工人完成新装配任务的调整成本为优化目标去建立混装线再平衡的数学模型。并设计了一种新的多目标粒子群算法求解模型,算法中引入各粒子动态密集距离去筛选外部文档的非劣解和指导全局最优值的更新,在控制解的容量同时保持Pareto解集分布均匀。此外,引入变异机制,提高了种群的全局搜索能力。最后,结合具体实例的验证表明,该改进多目标粒子群算法能有效地解决混装线再平衡问题。     

Robust design of flexible manufacturing systems using, colored Petri net and genetic algorithm

A method is presented for the robust design of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) that undergo the forecasted product plan variations. The resource allocation and the operation schedule of a FMS are modeled as a colored Petri net and an associated transition firing sequence. The robust design of the colored Petri net model is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem that simultaneously minimizes the production costs under multiple production plans (batch sizes for all jobs), and the reconfiguration cost due to production plan changes. A genetic algorithm, coupled with the shortest imminent operation time (SIO) dispatching rule, is used to simultaneously find the near-optimal resource allocation and the event-driven schedule of a colored Petri net. The resulting Petri net is then compared with the Petri nets optimized for a particular production plan in order to address the effectiveness of the robustness optimization. The simulation results suggest that the proposed robustness optimization scheme should be considered when the products are moderately different in their job specifications so that optimizing for a particular production plan creates inevitably bottlenecks in product flow and/or deadlock under other production plans.     

The multiple-robot assembly plan problem

In previous research, we defined, classified, and solved the robotic assembly plan problem for a single assembly robot. In this paper, we formulate this problem for the case of multiple, cooperating assembly robots. The problem now includes the allocation of assembly tasks among multiple robots.     

Multi-objective optimization of product variety and manufacturing complexity in mixed-model assembly systems

Product variety has increased dramatically as manufacturers compete for market shares. While higher variety of products may satisfy a broader range of customers, it also introduces complexity in manufacturing. A multi-objective optimization approach is proposed to balance product variety and manufacturing complexity when designing a product family and the mixed-model assembly system. Relative complexity is introduced to measure the complexity and to find the best set of product variants to be offered while balancing market share and complexity. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the approach.     

An integrated job shop scheduling and assembly sequence planning approach for discrete manufacturing

This paper proposes an integrated job shop scheduling and assembly sequence planning (IJSSASP) approach for discrete manufacturing, enabling the part processing sequence and assembly sequence to be optimized simultaneously. The optimization objectives are to minimize the total production completion time and the total inventory time of parts during production. The interaction effects between the job shop schedule and the assembly sequence plan in discrete manufacturing are analyzed, and the mathematical models including the objective functions and the constraints are established for IJSSASP. Based on the above, a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-Ⅱ) with a hybrid chromosome coding mechanism is applied to solve the IJSSASP problem. Through the case studies and comparison tests for different scale problems, the proposed IJSSASP approach is verified to be able to improve the production efficiency and save the manufacturing cost of the discrete manufacturing enterprise more effectively.     

Mixed-model assembly line balancing using a multi-objective ant colony optimization approach

Mixed-model assembly lines are production systems at which two or more models are assembled sequentially at the same line. For optimal productivity and efficiency, during the design of these lines, the work to be done at stations must be well balanced satisfying the constraints such as time, space and location. This paper deals with the mixed-model assembly line balancing problem (MALBP). The most common objective for this problem is to minimize the number of stations for a given cycle time. However, the problem of capacity utilization and the discrepancies among station times due to operation time variations are of design concerns together with the number of stations, the line efficiency and the smooth production. A multi-objective ant colony optimization (MOACO) algorithm is proposed here to solve this problem. To prove the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, a number of test problems are solved. The results show that the MOACO algorithm is an efficient and effective algorithm which gives better results than other methods compared.     

汽车装配车间生产计划与调度的同时优化方法

文中提出三种新方法来解决汽车装配车间生产计划与调度的同时优化问题.首先将汽 车装配线简化为一个Flow shop问题,并建立其混合整数规划模型,以求得使各装配工位的准 备成本和空闲时间尽可能少并尽可能满足产品需求的粗生产计划.然后在粗生产计划的基础上 考虑装配线的细节,用Tabu搜索法与快速调度仿真相结合的三种不同启发式算法使生产计划 与调度同时得到优化,并给出了三种算法的复杂性.大量算例的比较研究表明了这些算法的有 效性和适用性.     

Concurrent optimal adjustment of nominal dimensions and selection of tolerances considering alternative machines

Traditional practice to tolerance design has been a part of a three-step sequential approach to the overall product design process involving (i) conceptual design, (ii) parameter design, and (iii) tolerance design, in isolation. This practice works well for linear assemblies, as the sensitivities of tolerances are fixed, i.e. independent of the nominal dimensions. However, for nonlinear assemblies after the second step, an integrated approach involving minor adjustment of nominal dimensions and selection of tolerances in the third step, can be better to control the variability in the assembly output characteristic. The latter case has been addressed in this study. Simultaneous selection of design and manufacturing tolerances, and choice of a machine from amongst the alternatives, frequently encountered in different stages of realization of individual dimensions, are important issues in product development. Optimal design problem with focus on these issues has been attempted here. The resulting optimization problem involving a combinatorial and nonlinear search space cannot be effectively solved for the global solution using conventional optimization techniques. The genetic algorithm, a nontraditional optimization technique, has been proposed in this research. The solution of the aforementioned concurrent design problem has been demonstrated with the help of a simple case study.     

多目标优化特征选择研究综述

特征选择是模式识别领域中有效的降维方法,当特征选择涉及到的多个目标彼此冲突,难以平衡时,将特征选择视为多目标优化问题是时下的研究热点。为方便研究者系统地了解多目标特征选择领域的研究现状和发展趋势,对多目标特征选择方法进行综述。阐明了特征选择和多目标优化的本质;根据多目标优化方法的区别和特点,重点对比剖析各类多目标优化特征选择方法的优劣势;讨论现有多目标优化特征选择研究方法存在的问题以及对未来的展望。     

多目标遗传算法在混流装配线排序中的应用

混流装配线实现在一条流水线上装配多种不同类型的产品。该文在总结混流装配线排序问题的基础上建立了二种排序的目标函数：最小化工作站的闲置与超载时间和保持均匀的零部件消耗速率。引入了基于Pareto理论和小生镜单元技术的适应度函数及选择算子构建了多目标遗传算法用于混流装配线的排序优化问题。通过一个混流装配线的多目标排序实验,验证了该方法的有效性。     

Single assembly sequence to flexible assembly plan by Autonomous Constraint Generation

The factory of the future is steering away from conventional assembly line production with sequential conveyor technology, towards flexible assembly lines, where products dynamically move between work-cells. Flexible assembly lines are significantly more complex to plan compared to sequential lines. Therefore there is an increased need for autonomously generating flexible robot-centered assembly plans. The novel Autonomous Constraint Generation (ACG) method presented here will generate a dynamic assembly plan starting from an initial assembly sequence, which is easier to program. Using a physics simulator, variations of the work-cell configurations from the initial sequence are evaluated and assembly constraints are autonomously deduced. Based on that the method can generate a complete assembly graph that is specific to the robot and work-cell in which it was initially programmed, taking into account both part and robot collisions. A major advantage is that it scales only linearly with the number of parts in the assembly. The method is compared to previous research by applying it to the Cranfield Benchmark problem. Results show a 93% reduction in planning time compared to using Reinforcement Learning Search. Furthermore, it is more accurate compared to generating the assembly graph from human interaction. Finally, applying the method to a real life industrial use case proves that a valid assembly graph is generated within reasonable time for industry.     

A recursive operator allocation approach for assembly line-balancing optimization problem with the consideration of operator efficiency

This paper addresses an optimization model for assembly line-balancing problem in order to improve the line balance of a production line under a human-centric and dynamic apparel assembly process. As the variance of operator efficiency is vital to line imbalance in labor intensive industry, an approach is proposed to balance production line through optimal operator allocation with the consideration of operator efficiency. Two recursive algorithms are developed to generate all feasible solutions for operator allocation. Three objectives, namely, the lowest standard deviation of operation efficiency, the highest production line efficiency and the least total operation efficiency waste, are devised to find out the optimal solution of operator allocation. The method in this paper improves the flexibility of the operator allocation on different sizes of data set of operations and operators, and enhances the efficiency of searching for the optimal solution of big size data set. The results of experiments are reported. The performance comparison demonstrates that the proposed optimization method outperforms the industry practice.