Distributed artificial intelligence in process control

A distributed artificial intelligence based system for process planning in surface mount printed circuit board assembly was designed and developed. Multiple intelligent agents work together to read a CAD drawing of an assembly and subsequently deduce the process instructions needed. The system can also review a board from a ʹdesign for manufacturingʹ perspective and identify the cost of assembly. It uses fuzzy logic to deal with domain related uncertainty. Object oriented programming concepts have been used in system implementation.