Path Optimization For Computer Numerical Control-Printed Circuit Boards In Holes Drilling Process-Case Study

Electronic manufacturing sector uses Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines for drilling holes on Printed Circuit Board (PCB). Some machines do not choose the optimal route when completing their tasks. Hence, this paper proposes an approach, which is based on my Algorithm Shortest Path Search Algorithm (SPSA), for finding the optimal route in PCB holes drilling process. In SPSA, when the robotic arm at the initial position, the algorithm calculates the nearest point to the initial position from all points that the wires starts or ends with. If the nearest point is a start-of-wire point, it will use SPS algorithm 1. If the nearest point is an end-of-wire point, it will use SPS algorithm 2. This process is repeated until drilling all the lines. Then, the robotic arm will drill all the holes according to the Simulated Annealing Algorithm (AS) which I used to determine optimal machining parameters for milling operations. Annealing is the process of slowly cooling a physical system in order to obtain states with globally minimum energy. By simulating such a process, near globally minimum cost solutions can be founded for very large optimization problems. The results of the different optimization algorithms Genetic Algorithm (GA) and AS are compared and conclusions are presented. The modeling and simulation of route optimization in holes drilling process using SPSA is explained. The frame was designed in a way that achieved the aims of this paper. The CNC machine consists of components like driver, drill, three stepper motors, cables and microcontroller PIC16f877A to control the movement of the machine. This paper also explains the detailed problem of interest and the mathematical formulation of the problem is defined. Experimental result indicates that the proposed SPSA-based approach is capable to efficiently find the optimal route for PCB holes drilling process. With this methods, electronics manufacturing sector can optimize the drilling process hence will increase the productivity of the manufacturer.