CAD data translation for artificial intelligence based generative process planning

This research studies CAD/CAM integration through Artificial Intelligence based Generative Process Planning. The automatic generative process planning system consists of an expert system and an intelligent design module. This work is concentrated on the second part which is developed to directly interface a CAD database with a process planning expert system by the integration of design, process planning, and generation of machine control information through a single database that is first constructed during the design phase and then carried all the way through the planning into the machine control phase. A current commercial CAD-generated database is not directly applicable for use in the expert system. Therefore, a translation program and an interactive program are developed.;The research utilizes a symbolic representation of geometry combined with other data regarding a typical machined part. This symbolic representation is used as input to an AI-based expert system to develop a process plan.;The Conceptual Design Module (CDM) is an interactive program designed as the front end of a commercial CAD system. In the database of CDM, the geometry of a part is represented by Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) which consists of a linked list of solid primitives and primitive pointers to construct the part by Boolean operations. A machining process oriented data format in symbols is established with the aid of the interactive icon menu. This format represents all the primitives of a part and carries most of the information of the relationship between solid primitives for the expert system of process planning to select an appropriate sequence of operations.