GARI: AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR PROCESS PLANNING

We present a system, GARI, for planning the sequence of machining cuts of mechanical parts. It consists of an expert knowledge base made of manufacturing rules and a planner. Under specified conditions, each rule provides the system with weighted pieces of advice, which can be used by the planner to constrain the machining plan. The planner combines artificial intelligence techniques for nonlinear planning, for propagating constraints, and for processing contradictions. Parts to be machined are described as sets of interrelated features such as faces, bores, grooves, holes, notches. Each type of feature conveys an operational meaning with respect to the cutting process, which is exploited by the manufacturing rules.