Block assembly planning method considering installation and welding process

Currently, experience-based method is the major approach to deal with assembly sequence planning (ASP) problem in most shipyards, which remains a large gap to a higher automated and efficient stage. To close the gap, this paper presents an automated ASP method for hull block structure. In this method, assembly sequence is defined as the combination of parts installation and joints welding that can be performed alternately. At first, the assembly information related to the block is extracted from CAD model. Secondly, taking assembly operations as the basic object, an assembly hour statistic model is designed according to the man-hour quota principle. In this model, assembly process continuity, installation direction and welding mode are considered as the influencing factors of assembly efficiency. Next, a discrete particle swarm optimization method is designed to search the optimal assembly sequence. The block from the literature is taken as an example to verify the proposed method, and the result shows that the method is effective for assembly process planning.