Setup and fixturing are amongst the least automated of all the production activities for mechanical components and assemblies, and yet they contribute significantly to overall factors such as cost and lead time. This project seeks to automate the entire fixturing process, from the design of fixtures to their physical realization as assemblies of modular components. Theory and technology from the fields of kinematics and dynamics, geometric modeling, robotics, and artificial intelligence will be deployed through a joint effort involving four principal investigators and their students in two institutions, plus an industrial collaborator. Multiple tasks will be considered-for example, NC (numerically controlled) machining, metal-deposition processes, assembly, and inspection. Task descriptions, plus solid models of parts, assemblies and modular fixturing components will be used to compute fixture configurations appropriate for the tasks, and to generate plans for assembling the fixtures automatically. In addition, issues of design for fixturability will be addressed, and feedback will be provided to designers about the fixturing consequences of their decisions. The main objectives of the project are to advance the current understanding of representations and algorithms for automating the various steps of the overall fixturing process (e.g., the synthesis of fixture configurations), and to integrate subproblem solutions into a prototype, experimental system that demonstrates the feasibility of the approach. An industrial collaborator will provide a test bed for experimental investigations, information on current industrial practices, and realistic tasks and products.
