Coordinated planning and control of automated assembly manufacturing

A general, hierarchical method of planning coordinated motions among multiple objects in a dynamic environment is developed. This model consists of a two-phase approach: planning a global path for each object and then locally optimizing along that global path. The applicability of this model to surface-mount manufacturing systems is studied in different scenarios. By changing the priorities of the machines, different results may be obtained. By comparing these results, the best one may then be determined. Simulation results using the two-phase algorithm show an improvement over other planning and control methods.