CABPRO: a rule-based expert system for process planning of assembled multiwire cables

CABPRO is a prototype system which produces the assembly instructions of a multiwire cable with a subset of features associated with it. An overview is presented of process planning as it applies to the cable domain and as it applies to the scope of CABPRO. A description is given of the prototype development environment as well as the rationale for choices of tools used, which leads to a discussion of system architecture. The architecture of the prototype system is presented with a focus on how the rule-based hierarchy emulates expert process-planning techniques. An example cable is used to demonstrate functionality of the prototype system. Results of applying the system to cables now in production are reported. A look at future work planned for the production version release of CABPRO is presented