A Novel Approach to Identify Automation Potentials of Assembly Processes Directly from CAD Models

Even experts struggle with the decision which processes should be automated and which not. The best solution these days is the so-called Automation Potential Analyses (APA). However, the APA can just be applied to already existing manual assembly processes. In this work, a new approach was developed to define the automation potential already in the product development process with the help of a 3D CAD model. For this purpose, an expert system was developed, which automatically evaluates the automation potentials by accessing the CAD system SolidWorks and using evaluation criteria of the already existing APA of the Fraunhofer IPA.