Collaborative manufacturing of aircraft structural parts based on machining features and software agents

Manufacturing of aircraft structural parts have the characteristics of complex process, large variety, small batch, and frequent change of production status. In order to shorten lead time and reduce cost, high-efficiency communication and collaboration among manufacturing departments are required. However, in the existing research literature, tool/fixture design, manufacturing simulation, and online machining process monitoring are not fully taken into account for collaboration. In order to address these challenging issues, this paper proposes a collaborative manufacturing framework based on machining features and intelligent software agents. The components of the proposed framework include a machining process planning agent, a numerical control (NC) programming agent, a simulation and verification agent, a tool/fixture design agent, a cost estimation agent, a production management agent, and an online machining process monitoring agent. Machining features are used as information carrier for communication and collaboration among these agents. This paper particularly focuses on the collaboration between tool/fixture design and NC programming, as well as the collaboration between online machining processes and related departments. The proposed approach has been implemented through a prototype system and tested in a large aircraft manufacturing enterprise with some very promising results.