Automatic Generation of Stability Matrix for Assembly Sequence Planning

Assembly sequence planning centers around finding an optimal order to assemble parts according to one or several operational objectives, while subjected to various constraints. This paper presents a new method to extract data from the assembly model and represent stability constraints in matrix form to support mathematical operations. Unlike previous works in stability matrix generation, our method assesses stability following a physics-based approach. Thus, it can analyze contacts with and without friction, as well as reckoning the stability of part resting on multiple supports. Utilizing universal file format, our stability matrix generation module is highly flexible and can be deployed independently from the commercial CAD software that hosts the original assembly model. For demonstration, a case study is also discussed in this paper.