Ant Colony Optimization for Tool Path Integration in Spray Forming Processes

Author

Tewolde, Girma S. ; Sheng, Wihua

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Kettering Univ., Flint, MI

fYear

2006

fDate

9-15 Oct. 2006

Firstpage

2394

Lastpage

2399

Abstract

Spray forming is a new manufacturing process. The automated tool planning for this process is a challenging problem, especially for geometry-complicated parts consisting of multiple freeform surfaces. We have developed a tool path planning system which can automatically generate tool plans. This paper discusses the path integration problem, i.e, how to connect the paths from different surface patches so that the overall path length is minimized. An ant colony optimization (ACO)-based path integration algorithm is developed to solve this problem. Experimental tests are carried out on sample data as well as real world automotive body parts. The results proved to he better (by up to 10%) compared with those of a genetic algorithm (GA)-based solution we developed before

Keywords

end effectors; forming processes; industrial manipulators; optimisation; production engineering computing; spraying; ant colony optimization; automated tool planning; genetic algorithm; path integration algorithm; spray forming processes; tool path integration; Ant colony optimization; Computer aided manufacturing; Genetic algorithms; Glass; Intelligent robots; Manufacturing processes; Painting; Paints; Path planning; Spraying; Ant Colony Optimization; Genetic Algorithm; Spray Forming; Tool path Planning;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on

Conference_Location

Beijing

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0258-1

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0259-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IROS.2006.281678

Filename

4058746