A Concept for Selecting Suitable Resources in Automated Assembly Systems

Automated assembly systems are becoming more and more complex, which also increases the effort for their planning. The increasing complexity of the products to be assembled also reinforces this effect. For that reason, concepts and systems must be developed to simplify the planning processes by partially automating them and thus reducing the overall effort. One phase in this planning process is the selection of suitable automation resources to carry out an assembly step. The concept presented in this paper aims to support this selection process. Therefore, the requirements of the production process are modelled and generated based on the product model. The resources, on the other hand, provide assurances to be matched within the selection process. These requirements and assurances are modelled generically and product-oriented without using a process taxonomy or ontology. Furthermore, a concept is presented for selecting optimal resource combinations to perform a single or even multiple assembly steps while considering the property dependencies between the individual resources.