Handbook of Expert Systems Applications in Manufacturing Structures and rules (Intelligent Manufactoring Series)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly larger role in production and manufacturing engineering. Much of this growth is the result of special-purpose computer controlled machines that are dominating modem manufacturing operations, such as computer numerically controlled machines and robots, and production activities, such as materials handling and process planning. Since a great deal of production and manufacturing engineering knowledge can be put in the form of rules, expert systems have emerged as a promising practical tool of AI in solving manufacturing and production engineering problems. The expert systems allow knowledge to be used for constructing human-machine systems that have specialized methods and techniques for solving problems in a particular application area. Over the years, many expert systems have been developed for applications in manufacturing and production engineering. Most of these expert systems, however, have been of little use to practitioners at large. The primary reason for this limited utility is that in most cases the developers do not divulge the knowledge base and inference mechanism that form the backbone of an expert system. Without the knowledge base, users can only derive a very limited benefit from an expert system and, for all practical purposes, a technical publication describing the expert system for the reader merely becomes a publicity brochure. The reader must either develop his own knowledge base or purchase the system from the developer, often at a substantial cost. Front Matter....Pages i-xviii An introduction to expert systems in production and manufacturing engineering: the structure, development process and applications....Pages 1-20 Operations research/artificial intelligence rules for the optimal design of manufacturing systems: machine and traffic allocation....Pages 21-44 A common skeletal framework for knowledge-based solutions to a representative set of manufacturing problems....Pages 45-80 A general purpose knowledge-based system and its application to design problems....Pages 81-107 A knowledge-based system for selection of resource allocation rules and algorithms....Pages 108-129 An intelligent shop management system for production supervision....Pages 130-147 Intelligent systems for conceptual design of mechanical products....Pages 148-193 Knowledge-based surface treatment and coating selection in product design....Pages 194-209 Expert system for casting design evaluation....Pages 210-237 Expert system approaches to the selection of materials handling and transfer equipment....Pages 238-268 A knowledge-based system for scheduling in a flexible manufacturing system....Pages 269-287 ‘Optimal’ rule switching for flow shops with random workloads....Pages 288-302 An expert system approach to surface mount pick-and-place machine selection....Pages 303-320 FIXPERT: A rule-based system for workholding device selection of rotational parts....Pages 321-342 Learning in robotic task planning....Pages 343-369 An expert system with an external optimization module for quality control decisions....Pages 370-381 Back Matter....Pages 383-397 This Book Is Aimed At Both Researchers And Practitioners, And Provides A Collection Of Expert Systems In Manufacturing And Production Engineering Along With Their Knowledge Base And Rules. We Believe That Inclusion Of The Knowledge Base And Associated Rules Is Essential If Practitioners Are To Derive Full Benefit From These Expert Systems. This Unique Book Is The Result Of Our Belief And The Efforts Of Our Distinguished Colleagues Who Subscribe To This Philosophy. A Total Of 15 Different Expert Systems Are Included In This Book. These Expert Systems Are Preceded By An Introductory Chapter Written By Kuo, Preface Xvll Mital And Anand. The Expert System Rules Are Included On A Floppy Disk In Ascii And Can Be Easily Accessed. These Rules And The Description Of The Expert System's Structure Should Assist The Users In Customizing These Systems. Overall, The Expert Systems Included In This Volume Cover A Fairly Wide Variety Of Manufacturing And Production Engineering Topics.