Apparatus and methods for integrating intelligent manufacturing system with expert sheet metal planning and bending system

A computer program embodied on a computer readable program for use in an integrated sheet metal manufacturing and production system, comprising:

• a bend modeling system that develops a bend model of a sheet metal part to be produced;
• an expert planning system that develops bending plan information related to a bending plan for producing said sheet metal part based on said bend model, said expert planning system including a plurality of expert modules;
• and
• a selector that selects a set of said plurality of expert modules in order to adapt said expert planning system for different bending applications, said expert planning system developing said bending plan information based on said set of plurality of expert modules that are selected.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for developing a bending plan for producing a sheet metal part in accordance with one of a plurality of bending applications, said bending applications including a robot-assisted bending application and a manual, operator-assisted bending application, the computer program comprising:

• creating a bend model of said sheet metal part to be produced, said bend model comprising bend model data;
• selecting a set of a plurality of expert modules in accordance with one of said plurality of bending applications;
• developing a proposed bending plan based on said set of said plurality of expert modules that are selected;
• causing said proposed bending plan to be displayed;
• and
• storing said proposed bending plan as a final bending plan under a predetermined condition.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for use in an integrated sheet metal manufacturing and production system, comprising:

• a bend modeling system that develops a bend model of a sheet metal part to be produced;
• an expert planning system that develops a bending plan for producing said sheet metal part based on said bend model;
• and
• a constraint that selectively constrains said bending plan developed by said expert planning system based on a defined constraint, said constraint including a constraint manager which develops a constraint phrase in accordance with said defined constraint, wherein said expert planning system develops said bending plan in accordance with said constraint phrase.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for developing constraint phrases based on defined constraints, comprising:

• creating a bend model of a sheet metal part to be produced;
• defining a constraint, said defining comprising developing a constraint phrase in accordance with said defined constraint;
• and
• developing a bending plan for producing said sheet metal part, said bending plan being developed based on said bend model of said sheet metal part and said constraint phrase.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for use in an integrated sheet metal manufacturing and production system, comprising:

• a bend modeling system that creates a bend model of said sheet metal part;
• an expert planning system that develops bending plan information related to a bending plan for producing said sheet metal part based on said bend model;
• and
• an interface module that generates and transfers messages from said bend modeling system to said expert planning system, said expert planning system developing said bending plan information based on said messages,
• wherein said messages are generated by said interface module based on a Feature Exchange Language (FEL), said FEL messages being transferred by said interface module to initialize said expert planning system and to transfer setup information.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for use in an integrated sheet metal manufacturing and production system, said executable instructions of said computer program comprising:

• a bend modeling system that creates a bend model of said sheet metal part;
• an expert planning system that develops bending plan information related to a bending plan for producing said sheet metal part based on said bend model;
• an interface module that generates and transfers messages from said bend modeling system to said expert planning system;
• and
• a constraint manager which develops a constraint phrase in accordance with a defined constraint, said interface module comprising an indicating module which indicates said constraint phrase to said expert planning system, said expert planning system developing said bending plan information based on said constraint phrase.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for use in an integrated sheet metal manufacturing and production system, comprising:

• a bend modeling system for creating a bend model of a sheet metal part to be produced, said bend model comprising bend model data;
• an expert planning system that develops, based on said bend model data, bending plan information for producing said sheet metal part;
• and
• an activating system that selectively activates said expert planning system for different bending applications, so that an operator may independently develop a bending plan based on said bend model or selectively activate said expert planning system to develop said bending plan information.