Development of a feature based expert manufacturing process planner

A framework has been developed for an expert system that generates process plans for the manufacture of machined parts. The system consults the solid models of the parts (CAD database) for geometrical and technological information, and generates a process plan. Process plans are generated using the blackboard architecture concept through interaction among different experts from the process planning domain. A systematic method has been proposed for creating the different knowledge and databases as required for process planning. The methodology also provides an efficient scheme for exploiting the process knowledge bases. A prototype expert system (BBPP) has been developed using the CLIPS V 6.0 expert system shell and has been integrated with a feature based design system developed over the CAEDS solid modeler