Integrating electrical and mechanical design and process planning

This paper reports on the development of the process-planning module for EDAPS, an integrated system for designing and planning the manufacture of microwave modules. Microwave modules are complex devices having both electrical and mechanical properties, and EDAPS integrates electrical design, mechanical design, and process planning for both the mechanical and electrical domains. EDAPS's process planning module provides an integrated approach to process planning in both the electronic and mechanical domains, specifically in the manufacture of microwave transmit receive (T/R) modules. It enables EDAPS to generate process plans concurrently with design-and we are developing ways for EDAPS to use the process planning information provide feedback to designers about manufacturability, cost, and lead time for manufacturing their designs. The planning module is based on a modified version of an AI planning methodology called Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning. We provide an overview of its operation, and compare and contrast it to how HTN planning is normally done.