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ComputerAided_Design_Engineering_amp_Manufactur.pdf

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FIGURE 5.4<br />

Decision table and tree as used in CAPP. (From Shah, 1991).<br />

Compared to decision tables, decision trees can be more easily updated and maintained. The flexibility<br />

in expanding and contrasting the tree, if necessary, is another advantage. Figure 5.4 illustrates the decision<br />

table and tree.<br />

APPAS (Chang and Wysk, 1981) is a good ex<strong>amp</strong>le for a decision tree application. One system that<br />

employs decision trees is AUTOPLAN (Vogel and Adard, 1981). TIPPS (Chang and Wysk, 1984) employs<br />

decision trees combined with AI techniques.<br />

Expert System Techniques (AI)<br />

The solution to the process planning task depends mainly on the empirical knowledge relevant to the<br />

organization, based upon the existing facilities. The popularity of expert systems in CAPP is due to this<br />

qualitative, subjective, imprecise and company-specific nature of the process planning knowledge. The<br />

expert systems designed to cope with such knowledge characteristics are also much easier to modify and<br />

customize than the fixed logic conventional systems, because the knowledge in expert systems is explicitly<br />

represented and segregated from the planning (inference) mechanism.<br />

In general, problems in a production system formalism can be represented by an initial state, a goal<br />

state, a set of operators, and a control structure. One of the frequently used methods to solve problems<br />

in AI is the theorem proving technique. Using this technique, we can proceed from the initial state to<br />

the goal state. Proving that the goal state can be reached from the initial state will involve the applications<br />

of the operators, thereby providing a solution to the problem.<br />

The process planning problem falls into this category. In the part manufacturing problem, the initial<br />

state is the raw material or workpiece from which the part is to be produced and the goal state is the finished<br />

part. The set of operators comprises the available machine tools, cutters, etc. Processing of the part<br />

involves proceeding from the raw material to the finished part. Application of the operators (machine<br />

tools and cutters) moves the problem from one state to another. The various stages represent the<br />

workpiece in work-in-progress condition:<br />

Sinitial → S1 → S2 → . . . . →<br />

Sfinal These stages are non-reversible as once the material is removed, it cannot be added back. However,<br />

in process planning, because the actual material removal has not been done, the stages can be reversed,

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