Automated planning and design of fixtures for complex parts

This paper focuses on generative computation issues related to the automated planning and design of fixtures for parts of complex geometry. In the overall context of process planning, designing fixtures for complex parts involves many reasoning and computational tasks which cannot be separated from other process planning tasks. In this paper, a three-stage system architecture for automating the fixture design process is first described. This architecture is then justified from a concurrent manufacturing planning point of view. Next, generative computation tasks for enclosing complex surfaces, fixturing features analysis, spatial interference avoidance and fixture configuration evaluation are described, and solution procedures are outlined. Finally, a software system implementation and developmental results for the proposed fixture design process are presented.