The Development of Expert System Tool for Manufacturing Process Planning

Summary

This paper deals with a synthetic method for knowledge expression suitable for manufacturing process planning. This hierarchical knowledge expression with multiknowledge-unit includes the framework, production rules, basic facts and fuzzy knowledge. in its knowledge acquisition system there included the correspondent modules for knowledge expression, KB integrity inspection and auxiliary knowledge acquisition. Its reasoning is guided by framework inference, with rule-inference as its strategy. Some problems of key techniques, such as parameter assignment, inequality discrimination and fuzzy inference are all solved. On account of the use of vast amount of engineering data during process planning, an interface to DBASE-1K is developed. Its inference engine provides the function of forward inference, backward inference, forward/backward inference and fuzzy inference, etc.. The multiple explanatory functions make the system more transparent. With this tool an expert system for the CAPP of ball-screw drives is developed, indicating the achievement of expected destinations.