An Approach of Obtaining Global and Near-global Optimal Process Plans Based on GA Considering Operations Precedence Constraints

An approach is proposed to obtain global and near-global optimal process plans based on genetic algorithm. During the procedure of initializing and mutating populations, operations precedence constraints are employed by constraint adjustment algorithm to ensure each chromosome stays in feasible domain. Operations precedence constraints can be generated automatically from the selected alternative machining processes for each feature. Through comparing those optimal process plan candidates created from genetic algorithm, the global and near-global optimal process plans could be obtained. A case study has been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.