US 10,719,069 B2Granted

System and method for constructing process plans for hybrid manufacturing with the aid of a digital computer

AssigneePalo Alto Research Center Incorporated

InventorsMorad Behandish, Saigopal Nelaturi, Johan de Kleer

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Abstract

A systematic approach to constructing process plans for hybrid manufacturing is provided. The process plans include arbitrary combinations of AM and SM processes. Unlike the suboptimal conventional practice, the sequence of AM and SM modalities is not fixed beforehand. Rather, all potentially viable process plans to fabricate a desired target part from arbitrary alternating sequences of pre-defined AM and SM modalities are explored in a systematic fashion. Once the state space of all process plans has been enumerated in terms of a partially ordered set of states, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) planning techniques are utilized to rapidly explore the state space, eliminate invalid process plans, for instance, process plans that make no physical sense, and optimize among the valid process plans using a cost function, for instance, manufacturing time and material or process costs.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A system for determining manufacturability of a part for hybrid manufacturing, comprising:

a computer, comprising:
a storage device, comprising:
a model of an as-designed part;
parameters for one or more manufacturing instruments available to the computer;
semantics for interchangeability of an as-manufactured part;
and
manufacturing capabilities for the one or more manufacturing instruments;
a processor and memory within which code for execution by the processor is stored, the processor, memory, and code configured to:
compute manufacturing primitives for each manufacturing instrument of the one or more manufacturing instruments, each manufacturing primitive comprising a shape that is manufacturable through a single manufacturing action that can be performed by the manufacturing instrument;
determine that the as-designed part is manufacturable according to any manufacturing sequence described in terms of a combination of the manufacturing primitives, wherein the processor, memory, and code are further configured to:
compute canonical intersection terms by taking intersections and complements of the manufacturing primitives, each canonical intersection term being a three-dimensional region that is completely inside or completely outside each of the manufacturing primitives;
and
form one or more different subcollections of the canonical intersection terms that comprise a representation of an as-manufactured artifact that is interchangeable with the as-designed part in view of semantically-defined tolerance specifications;
and
determine whether there exists a union of a subcollection of canonical intersection terms that matches the as-designed part with respect to the semantics for interchangeability.

12 more elements

A method for determining manufacturability of an as-designed part, the method comprising:

providing a computer with a model of the as-designed part to be fabricated;
providing the computer with parameters for one or more manufacturing instruments that are each capable of performing at least one manufacturing process;
providing the computer with manufacturing capabilities for the one or more manufacturing instruments;
providing the computer with semantics for interchangeability of an as-manufactured part;
computing manufacturing primitives for each manufacturing instrument of the one or more manufacturing instruments, each manufacturing primitive comprising a shape that is manufacturable through a single manufacturing action that can be performed by the manufacturing instrument;
determining that the as-designed part is manufacturable according to any manufacturing sequence described in terms of a combination of the manufacturing primitives, wherein determining that the as-designed part is manufacturable comprises:
computing canonical intersection terms by taking intersections and complements of the manufacturing primitives, each canonical intersection term being a three-dimensional region that is completely inside or completely outside each of the manufacturing primitives;
and
forming one or more different subcollections of the canonical intersection terms that comprise a representation of an as-manufactured artifact that is interchangeable with the as-designed part in view of semantically-defined tolerance specifications;
and
determining whether there exists a union of a subcollection of the canonical intersection terms that matches the as-designed part with respect to the semantics for interchangeability.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/858,677Filed 29 Dec 2017
Published: US 2019/0204813 A14 Jul 2019
Granted: 21 Jul 2020
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification18 codes

G05B 19/4188
Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible…:…
B33Y 50/00
Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing
B33Y 50/02
Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing: for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
G06F 30/17
Geometric CAD: mechanical parametric or variational design