Intelligent Process Planning

Computer Aided Process Planning is very hot topic in the manufacturing. It uses the geometric information (such as shape, size, etc.) and information technology (such as materials, heat treatment, bulk, etc.) which are input into the computer to output parts of the route of the process and the procedures automatically. Process planning is very important in the manufacturing process. With the continuous development of the manufacturing sector, the traditional manual methods of Process Planning flaws more and more serious. Computer-aided technology can increase their technical capacity effectively. CAPP is an effective means to improve the design. The research of CAPP has got a very huge development, from the search logic structure, Variant, Generative, and Hybrid to Expert System. In the future, the development of the CAPP will focus on the extending of the application scope, depth and level. In this chapter, a general introduction is presented firstly. Then the application of genetic algorithm (GA) to CAPP is introduced. Thirdly implement of ANN in CAPP System is presented. In the fourth part, use of Case-Based Reasoning in CAPP is discussed. Fourthly, CAPP based on Multi-Agent (MAS) system is illustrated.