Assembly Sequence Planning Bibliography

Introduction

Related papers are grouped together under the names of their principle authors, so that sets of people who tend to write papers together are listed together. Both the grouping of papers and the selection of "principle" authors is somewhat arbitrary, but I find this a more useful organization than a straight alphabetical listing.

Most of the links in the bibliography are cross-references within the bibliography, however there are also some links to home pages of people and organizations. To distinguish between the two, I have marked external links with a *) after the name of the person or organization.

Note: I do not have copies of all the papers listed here. Many of these references are taken from other people's papers. Many of the annotations are based on what other people's papers said about the papers. If you want copies of papers, I recommend contacting the authors.

Solicitation

• Assembly Sequence Planning references to add.
• Corrections to existing references.
• Annotations for existing references (especially your own).
• URL's for authors, institutions, copies of papers, and abstracts.

Authors

• Akagi, F
• Almgren, Roland - U of Linkoping
• Arai, E
• Arbib, Michael
• Arkin, E. M.
• Ayoub, R G
• Bekey, George - USC
• Bhatia, Praveen - IIT Kanpur
• Boneschanscher, N - Delft
• Bourjault, Alain - Besancon
• Browne, J
• Caselli, Stefano - Univ di Parma
• Chakrabarty, S - ICAD
• Chang, K H - U Cincinnati
• Chang, Tien-Chien - Purdue
• Chau, H. L. - Hong Kong Univ of Sci & Tech
• Chen, C L Philip - Wright State
• Cho, D Y
• Cho, H S - Korea Advanced Inst of Sci & Tech
• De Fazio, Thomas - Draper Labs
• De Floriani, L
• Delchambre, A - CRIF/WTCM
• ElMaraghy, Hoda - McMaster Univ
• Fox, B R
• Frommherz, B
• Ghosh, Amitabh - IIT Kanpur
• Gui, J K
• Heemskerk, C J M - Delft
• Henrioud, Jean-Michel - Besancon
• Hoehmann, Axel - U of Karlsruhe
• Hoffman, Richard - Northrup
• Homem de Mello, Luiz - JPL
• Huang, Kai-I - Texas A&M
• Huang, Y F - Purdue
• Hutchinson, Seth - Illinois
• Jakiela, Mark J. - MIT
• Jentsch, W
• Kaden, F
• Karnick, Harish - IIT Kanpur
• Katsushi, I
• Khosla, Pradeep - CMU
• Kitajima, K.
• Ko, Heedong - Purdue
• Kroll, Ehud - Texas A&M
• Laperriere, Luc
• Latombe, Jean-Claude - Stanford
• Lenz, E - Technion
• Lin, Alan - Purdue
• Lee, C S George - Purdue
• Lee, Kunwoo
• Lee, Sukhan - JPL & USC
• Lee, Y H - Purdue
• Liu, Jiming - Hong Kong Baptist (jiming@comp.hkbu.edu.hk)
• Liu, Yanxi - U Mass
• Malowany, A. S. - McGill
• Mattikalli, Raju - CMU
• Medland, A J
• Mullineux, G
• Nagy, G
• Natarajan, B K - CMU
• Nau, Dana - U Maryland
• Noorhosseini, S. M. - McGill
• Nnaji, Bartholomew O - U Mass
• Pagello, Enrico - U of Padua
• Park, J H
• Popplestone, Robin - U Mass
• Pu, Pearl - Swiss Federal Inst of Tech
• Purvis, Lisa - Univ of Connecticut
• Qian, Wen-Han - Shanghai Jiao Tong U
• Sanderson, Arthur - RPI
• Santochi, M.
• Schweikard, Achim - Technishe Univesitat Munchen
• Sedas, Sergio - CMU
• Sekiguchi, H
• Sekine, Yukiko
• Seow, Kiam Tian - Nanyang Tech U
• Shin, C K - Samsung Data Systems
• Shpitalni, M - Technion
• Sudhakar, M
• Swaminathan, A - UT Austin
• Takeyama, H
• Thomas, J P - Univ of Reading
• Tonshoff, H K
• Tsao, J F - Texas A&M
• Venuvinod, P K
• Vijaykumar, Rukmini
• Wee, William - U Cincinnati
• Weule, H
• Whitney, Daniel - Draper Labs & MIT
• Wilson, Randall - Sandia
• Wolter, Jan - Texas A&M
• Woo, Tony - U Mich
• Xia, Xiadong - USC

Terminology

Sources

Conferences:

IEEE ICRA

IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation
This annual conference has been the major forum for assembly planning papers since 1989. Several workshops on assembly sequence planning have been held at this conference as well.

IEEE ICSE

IEEE International Conference on Systems Engineering
The 1990 ICSE included a special session on assembly planning.

IEEE ISATP

IEEE International Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning
This conference was held in Pittsburgh in August of 1995. It may or may not be the first of a series.

Journals:

IEEE Trans R&A

IEEE Transactions on Robotics & Automation

Bibliography

[Akag80]

F Akagi, H Osaki, S Kikuchi, "The Method of Analysis of Assembly Work Based on the Fastern Method," Bulletin of JSME, vol 23, no 184, pp 1670-1675, Oct 1980.

[Almg90]

R. Almgren, N Martensson, "Rule Based Assembly Sequencing Exploiting Human Planning Experience," Proc 2nd Conf on Flexible Assembly Systems, Chicago, vol 28, Sept 1990, pp 79-80.

[Almg94a]

R. Almgren, "Topological Modeling of Assembly Systems," Linkoping Studies in Science and Technology, Dissertation no. 335, ISBN 91-7871-228-9, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, Linkoping University, 1994.

• Input is a product and a topological model of an assembly system (e.g., line, cell, converging lines, etc). Idea is to constrain search for plans to those compatible with the assembly system. Method of evaluating compatibility is presented. No actual planner or planning algorithm is built however.

[Almg94b]

R. Almgren, "Comparative Topological Modeling and Analysis of Assemblies and Assembly Systems - An Aid in Computerized Assembly Planning," IEEE ICRA, 1994, pp 1468-1475.

[Arai93]

E Arai, K Iwata, "CAD System With Product Assembly/Disassembly Planning Function," Robotics and Computer Aided Integrated Manufacturing, vol 10, no 1/2, 1993, pp 41-48.

[Arki89]

E M Arkin, R Connelly, J S B Mitchell, "On Monotone Paths Among Obstacles, with Applications to Planning Assemblies," Proc of 5th ACM Symp on Computational Geometry, pp 334-343, 1989.

[Ayou89]

R G Ayoub, K L Doty, "A Representation for Deiscrete Assembly Sequences in Task Planning," Proc IEEE 13th Ann Int'l Computer Software and Applications Conf, 1989, pp 746-753.

[Bhat91]

P Bhatia, H Karnick, A Ghosh, "Generating Symbolic Information for Intelligent Robot Manipulation," Proc Int'l Symp on Intelligent Robotics, Bangalore India, Jan 1991, pp 640-653.

[Bhat92]

P Bhatia, "Automatic Robotic Assembly from Disassembly: An Approach Using Robot Path Planing," PhD Thesis, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, Center for Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Oct 1992.

[Heem87]

C J M Heemskerk, "Programming an Intelligent Assembly Cell," Proc of 1st Euro Symp on Assembly Automation, Veldhoven, The Netherlands, Nov 1988.

[Bone88a]

N Boneschanscher, "Grouping Parts for the Planning of Assembly Sequences," Tech Rept WPS-88.026, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems, Delft Univ of Tech, Delft, The Netherlands, May 1988.

[Bone88b]

N Boneschanscher, S J Buckley, H van der Drift, R H Taylor, "Subassembly Stability," Proc 7th Nat'l Conf on AI, pp 780-785, Aug 1988.

[Bone88c]

N Boneschanscher, C J M Heemskerk, "Grouping Parts to Reduce the Complexity of Assembly Sequence Planning," Tech Rept WPS-88.047, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems, Delft Univ of Tech, Delft, The Netherlands, Nov 1988.

[Heem88a]

C J M Heemskerk, "Generating Plans for the Assembly Process, Methods and Restrictions," Tech Rept WPS-88.008, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems, Delft Univ of Tech, Delft, The Netherlands, Feb 1988.

[Heem88b]

C J M Heemskerk, "The Assembly State Transition Diagram, A Representation for Assembly Sequences," Tech Rept WPS-88.048, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems, Delft Univ of Tech, Delft, The Netherlands, Nov 1988.

• Basically the same data structure as used by De Fazio & Whitney. Comparisons to other data structures, like AND/OR graphs.

[Bone89]

N Boneschanscher, C J M Heemskerk, "Grouping Parts to Reduce the Complexity of Assembly Sequence Planning," INCOM '89: 6th IFAC Symp on Information Control Problems in Manufacturing Technology, Madrid, Sept 1989.

[Heem89a]

C J M Heemskerk, "Plan Product, Design of an Assembly Sequence Planner," Tech Rept WPS-89.002, Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems, Delft Univ of Tech, Delft, The Netherlands, Jan 1989.

[Heem89b]

C J M Heemskerk, C A Van Luttervelt, "The Use of Heuristic in Assembly Sequence Planning," Annuals of the CIRP, vol 38 no 1, 1989, pp 37-40.

• Input is an attributed contact graph. Output is a [DeFa87]-style state diagram. A modified form of this treats clusters of parts single parts in the main diagram, and then constructs a separate diagram for each cluster. This is apparantly more compact. Clusters are groups of parts that will be put together one after the other, without being interupted by insertions of other parts. The system automatically recognizes five types of clusters: stack clusters, sort clusters (eg, 6 screws holding the same two parts together), layer clusters (eg, a set of parts between the same two parts), combi clusters (a set of stacks of the same sort), and subassembly clusters (user defined).

[Heem90]

C J M Heemskerk, "A Concept for Computer-Aided Process Planning for Flexible Assembly," PhD Thesis, Delft University, Netherlands, ISBN 90-370-0041X, 1990.

[Waar92]

J J Waarts, N Boneschanscher, W F Bronsvoort, "A Semi-Automatic Assembly Sequence Planner," IEEE ICRA, May 1992, pp 2431-2438.

[Bour84]

A Bourjault, "Contribution a une Approche Methodologique de L'Assemblage Automatise: Elaboration Automatique des Sequences Operatoires," These d'Etat, Universite de Franche-Comte, Besancon, France, Nov 1984.

• Assembly represented via a graph of contacts/connections. Assembly process viewed as sequence of states that establish connections. A series of questions are asked to establish a a directed graph of assembly states. De Fazio and Whitney reduce number of questions.

[Bour86]

A Bourjault, F Lhote, "Modelisation d'un prodessus d'assemblage," R.A.I.R.O. APII, vol 20, no 2, pp 183-198, 1986.

[Bour87a]

A Bourjault, et al, "Outils methodologiques pour la definition de systems d'assemblage automatises," Universite de Franche-Comte Centre de Recherche Microsystems et Robotique, Feb 1987.

[Bour87b]

A Bourjault, "Methodology of Assembly Automation: A New Approach," Abstracts of 2nd Conf Robotics and Factories of the Future (San Diego, CA), July 1987.

[Henr89a]

J-M Henrioud, "Contribution a la Conceptisation de l'Assemblage Automatise: Nouvelle Approche en vue de Determination des Processus d'Assemblage," These d'etat, Universite de Franche-Comte, Besancon, France, Dec 1989.

[Henr89b]

J-M Henrioud, A Bourjault, D Chappe, "Contribution to Computer-Aided Design of Flexible Assembly Systems," Proc 5th Int Symp on Inf Cont Prob in Manufacturing Tech (INCOM '89) Madrid, Spet 1989, pp 569-572.

[Henr90a]

J-M Henrioud, F Bonnevile, A Bourjault, "Evaluation and Selection of Assembly Plans," APMS 90, Espoo Finland, Aug 1990, pp 212-219.

[Henr90b]

J-M Henrioud, A Bourjault, "Determination des Arbres d'Assemblage," APII, vol 24, Nov 1990, 547-564.

[Henr91a]

J-M Henrioud, A Bourjault, "LEGA: An Efficient Computer-Aided Generator of Assembly Plans," FAIM 91, Limerick Ireland, 1991.

• System to find all assembly trees of a product. Only 20 parts, unless we have "strategic constraints."

[Henr91b]

J-M Henrioud, A Bourjault, "LEGA: A Computer-Aided Generator of Assembly Plans," in Computer-Aided Mechanical Assembly Planning (L. Homem de Mello, S. Lee editors), Kluwer Academic Pub, 1991, pp 191-215.

[Henr92]

J-M Henrioud, A Bourjault, "Computer-Aided Assembly Process Planning," Proc Instn Mech Engrs, vol 206, pp 61-66, 1992.

[Chen94]

Ke Chen, J-M Henrioud, "Systematic Generation of Assembly Precedence Graphs," IEEE ICRA, May 1994, pp 1476-1482.

[Stad95]

P C Stadzisz, J-M Henrioud, "Integrated Design of Product Families and Assembly Systems," IEEE ICRA, vol 2, May 1995, pp 1290-1295.

[Bonn95]

F Bonneville, J-M Henrioud, A Bourjault, "Generation of Assembly Sequences with Ternary Operations," IEEE ISATP, Aug 1995, pp 245-249.

[Brow91]

J Browne, J Tierney, K Walsh, "A Two-Stage Assembly Process Planning Tool for Robot-Based Flexible Assembly Systems," International Journal of Production Research, v 29, n 2, 1991, pp 247-266.

[Case95]

S Caselli, Francesco Zanichelli, "On Assembly Sequence Planning using Petri Nets," IEEE ISATP, Aug 1995, pp 239-244.

[Chan85]

K-H Chang, W G Wee, "A Knowledge Based Planning System for Mechanical Assembly Using Robots," IEEE 22nd Design Automation Conference, 1985, pp 330-336.

• Planning based on a knowledge base including workpiece structures, machine operations, and assembly principles. Seems to be a kind of blackboard approach.

[Chau95]

H L Chau, E J Derrick, H C Shen, R K Wong, "A New Approach for the Specification of Assembly Systems," IEEE ISATP, 1995, pp 9-14.

[Chen91]

C L P Chen, "Automatic Assembly Sequences Generation by Pattern-Matching," IEEE Trans on SMC, vol 21, no 2, 1991.

[Chen93]

C L P Chen, C A Wichman, "A Systematic Approach for Design and Planning of Mechanical Assemblies," AI-EDAM, vol 7, no 1, 1993, pp 19-36.

[Cho93]

D Y Cho, H S Cho, "Inference on Robotic Assembly Precedence Constraints Using a Part Contact Level Graph," Robotica, vol 11, pt 2, Mar-Apr 1993, pp 173-183.

[Shin95]

C K Shin, D S Hong H S Cho, "Disassemblability Analysis for Generating Robotic Assembly Sequences," IEEE ICRA, vol 2, May 1995, pp 1284-1289.

• A method of evaluating the quality of a disassembly operation in terms of separability (based on area of local separation cone) and the stability (also based on straight-line separation coes) of the remaining part set. A simple, greedy, non-backtracking search strategy is used.

[DeFa83]

T De Fazio, D Whitney, "Part and Assembly Technique Classification," CS Draper Lab, Rep R-1643, Apr 1983.

[Gust84]

Richard E Gustavson, "Computer-aided Synthesis of Least Cost Assembly Systems," Proc of 14th ISIR, Oct 1984.

[DeFa87]

T De Fazio, D Whitney, "Simplified Generation of All Mechanical Assembly Sequences," IEEE Trans R&A, vol 3 no 6, Dec 1987, pp 640-658. (See corrections in IEEE Trans R&A, vol 4 no 6, pp 705-708, 1988.)

• Improvement of [Bour84] to use fewer questions of greater complexity. Mating precedence constraints used to describe contraints. Diamond diagrams to represent sets of state sequences. No implementation was done at this stage.

[Klei86]

Charles J Klein, "Generation and Evaluation of Assembly Sequence Alternatives," MIT SM Thesis, ME Dept, Nov 1986; CS Draper Labs Report T-934.

• Compares plans for manual assembly in terms of tool and fixture costs, and labor cost. Costs varying by 5% to 20% found. Plans were evaluated with [Gust84] and [Holm87] which proved effective. (abstracted in [Whit86])

[Whit86]

D Whitney, T De Fazio, R Gustavson, S Graves, C Holmes, C Klein, "Computer-Aided Design of Flexible Assembly Systems: First Report," CS Draper Lab Rept CDSL-R-1947, Aug 1986.

• Similar to [DeFa87], but with extensions to include non-assembly operation (adjustments, tests, etc.) into liaison diagram. Various other stuff.

[Holm87]

Carol A. Holmes, "Equipment Selection and Task Assignment for Multiproduct Assembly System Design," SM Thesis, MIT Operations Research Cntr and Sloan School of Management, Jan 1987.

[Lui88]

Man-Cheung Max Lui "Generation and Evaluation of Mechanical Assembly Sequences Using the Liason-Sequence Method," Masters Thesis, Dept of Mech Eng, MIT, May 1988; Charles Stark Draper Lab rept CSDL-T-990.

[Whit88]

D Whitney, T De Fazio, R Gustavson, S Graves, Kurt Cooprider, C Klein, M-C Liu, Suguna Pappu, "Computer-Aided Design of Flexible Assembly Systems: Final Report," CS Draper Lab Rept CDSL-R-2033, Jan 1988.

• Brief description of [Defa87], excerpts from [Lui88], adding reorientation operations to diamond diagrams by adding part orientation to state description, assembly system synthesis.

[DeFa88]

T De Fazio, "Thoughts on Answering Precedence-Relation Questions from a CAD Data-Base: The Nature of the Primitive Precedence Relation Question," CS Draper Labs Memo No MAT-1312, April 1988.

[Ambl89]

Guillaume Pierre Amblard, "Rationale for the use of subassemblies in production systems: A comparative look at sequential and arborescent systems," SM Thesis, Operations Research, MIT, Cambridge, MA, May 1989.

• Lists qualitative advantages and disadvantages of subassembly use. Simulation used to compare output rate with and without subassemblies. Algorithms to generate arborescent and sequential plans (based on [DeFa87]) are given.

[Papp89]

Suguna Pappu, "A Dual Ascent Algorithm for Finding the Optimal Test Strategy for an Assembly Sequence," SM Thesis, MIT, Operations Research Center, May 1989.

[DeFa89]

T De Fazio, D Whitney, Man-Cheung Max Lui, T Abell, D Baldwin, "Aids for the Design of Choice of Assembly Sequences," IEEE International Conf on SMC, Nov 1989.

[Nevi89]

James L Nevins, D Whitney, T De Fazio, Alexander C Edsall, Richard E Gustavson, Richard W Metzinger, William A Dvorak, "Concurrent Design of Products & Processes: A Strategy for the Next Generation in Manufacturing," McGraw Hill, 1989.

• Limited amounts of sequence planning, mostly similar to [DeFa87]. Lots of general design and assembly material.

[DeFa90]

T De Fazio, T E Abell, G Amblard, D Whitney, "Computer-Aided Assembly Sequence Editing and Choice: Editing Criteria, Bases, Rules and Technique," IEEE ICSE, Aug 1990, pp 416-422.

[Bald90]

Daniel F Baldwin, "Algorithmic Methods and Software Tools for the Generation of Mechanical Assembly Sequences," SM Thesis, MIT ME Dept, Cambridge, MA, Feb 1990.

[Abel91]

T E Abell, G P Amblard, D F Baldwin, T L De Fazio, M M Lui, D E Whitney, "Computer Aids for Finding, Representing, Choosing Amongst, and Evaluating the Assembly Sequences of Mechanical Products," in Computer-Aided Mechanical Assembly Planning (L S Homem de Mello & S Lee, editors), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991, pp 383-435.

[Bald91]

Daniel F Baldwin, Thomas E Abell, M-C M Lui, T De Fazio, D Whitney, "An Integrated Computer Aid for Generating and Evaluating Assembly Sequences for Mechanical Products," IEEE Trans R&A, vol 7 no 1, Feb 1991, pp 78-94.

• Describes an implementation of a semi-automated planning environment along the lines of [DeFa87]. There are many important differences between this and the original system, however.

[Mill91]

Joseph M. Millner "The Assembly Sequence Selection Problem: An Application of Simulated Annealing," MIT Sloan School Master's Thesis, May 1991.