Path planning algorithm for assembly of complex product based on V-Map and ant colony optimization algorithm

Path Planning for Assembly (PPA) is one of the most important contents of Design for Assembly (DFA). It provides positive and effective support for other modules of DFA and effective supporting tool of DFA for implement of Concurrent Engineer (CE). Therefore, a new method is proposed for PPA in this paper. First of all, real work space of part is mapped for Configuration Space (C-Space) so that we translate question of PPA into another mode. Secondly, we construct visible map (V-Map) by knowledge of computational geometry to generate the selected set (S-Set) of assembly paths. Finally, we adopt ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm to gain the best solution from the S-Set. In the end, a simple case was studied in this method which proved that it has a satisfactory effect on accuracy and efficiency for assembly.