Automated Microassembly Sequence Planning With Sub-Assemblies

Abstract

Assembly sequence planning is an engineering problem that has been of great interest in the manufacturing field at the macro-scale. As more complex assemblies are desired at the micro and nano scales it is no longer feasible for human beings to plan and execute the production of these systems. A promising algorithm that allows optimization of assembly sequence plans that has been developed is called the Breakout Local Search. One drawback of this algorithm is its inability to consider the need for intermediate sub-assemblies to generate feasible solutions. Here an expansion to the BLS algorithm, called the Sub Assembly Generating BLS (SABLS) algorithm, is proposed. The fitness function of this new algorithm is also tailored to the specific constraints and motion primitives for a micromanipulation test-bed allowing for its use in microassembly applications. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is capable of generating optimized solutions that can be assembled with this limited degree of freedom system.