Expert System for Milling Process Selection

Abstract

The application of artificial intelligence in the field of manufacturing engineering have been quite widespread, especially in the areas of diagnostics, debugging, process evaluation, planning, design, and classification problems. Expert systems are valuable tools to be used in manufacturing engineering, especially in the selection of various parameters that contribute to the quality and cost of the product being manufactured. In machining, particularly milling, the selection of the appropriate process (es) to be used to machine the part is dependent on heuristic and domain dependent knowledge which can be represented as production rules. This paper will outline the design and development of an expert system which will enable the selection of milling processes for the manufacture of a product, describe data and knowledge acquisition methods, examine inference procedures, and identify effective expert system design methods.