Integration of process monitoring and inspection based on agents and manufacturing features

Small batch and multiple variety production mode and changing machining conditions call for dynamic inspection to guarantee machining quality. Dynamic inspection by considering real time monitoring information is a promising approach, but there is no available technology for integrating real time monitoring and inspection. To address this issue, this paper proposes a method of integrating monitoring and inspection based on intelligent software agents and manufacturing features. An agent-based approach is applied to develop an integrated framework, while manufacturing features are used as the information carrier to represent and connect monitoring and inspection information. Dynamic inspection is triggered according to the analysis results of real time monitoring. A prototype system has been developed to implement and validate the proposed method.