Automated assembly systems

Abstract

Assembly is one of the major processes in a manufacturing environment, where many pre-fabricated parts are brought together within specified tolerances to produce a product which has some functional value. The need for sophisticated assembly systems that are intelligent and highly flexible has increased over the years and motivated many researchers to develop innovative techniques in implementing such systems. Today’s industry demands more flexibility in assembly automation due to rapid changes in product design imposed by highly competative global markets. Apart from flexibility, it is also desirable to build systems that can quickly adapt to new product designs and market changes. This fact was stated in an editorial by Dagli (1991) as:

Manufacturing systems of the 21st century will demand more flexibility in product design, process planning, scheduling and process control. This may well be achieved through integrated software and hardware architectures that generate current decisions based on information collected from assembly systems, and execute these decisions by converting them into signals transferred through communication networks. Manufacturing technology has not yet reached this state. However, the urge for achieving this goal is captured by the term ‘Intelligent Systems’ that has begun to be used more in late 1980s.