OBJECT-ORIENTED KNOWLEDGE-BASED AUTOMATIC CELL PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT

This paper describes a cell programming environment that would allow m anufacturers to integrate multi-vendor machines into Flexible Manufact uring Cells (FMCs), and deal with problems associated with programming FMCs. The environment consists of the cell programming editor and the automatic generation module. In the cell programming editor, cell pro grammers can develop cell programs using a Task Level UniSet which sup ports task-oriented specifications for manipulating cell activities. T his approach to cell programming reduces the amount of detail that cel l programmers need to consider, and allows them to concentrate on the most important aspects of the task at hand. The automatic generation m odule is used to transform task specifications into executable program s used by cell constituents. This module is based on efficient algorit hms and expert systems which can be used for optimal path planning of robot operations and optimal machining parameters of machine tool oper ations. The development tool for designing the environment is based on an object-oriented approach which provides simple-to-use and intuitiv e user interfaces, and allows for the easy development of object model s associated with the environment. Test results are illustrated in ord er to demonstrate the applicability of the environment developed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.