Integration of perception, global planning and local planning in the manufacturing domain

Current approaches for factory automation have not yet fully succeeded in realizing an autonomous manufacturing system for mass customized, highly variant products. In this interdisciplinary work between computer science and mechanical engineering departments, the authors report on an integral approach for a cognitive manufacturing system which uses planning, perception and knowledge capabilities to reach a level of flexibility and robustness as found in a traditional human workshop. Integrating a bottom-up approach for local machining planning, a global planning system and a perception system, an autonomously operating manufacturing system can be realized. The integrated approach is validated using a simple yet characteristic example part that demonstrates the potential of the approach and the interplay and interfaces between the methods. Overall, the approach demonstrates that a specialized local planning system for machining can be effectively integrated with a general, global planning system and a perception system and thus be integrated in the manufacturing system.