2 Integrating Electrical and Mechanical Design and Process Planning Module Design Device Conceptualization

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, speciically 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 modiied 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. Assembly These phases need to be executed concurrently for optimal and easily manufacturable designs Population Module Assembly Individual Unsatisfactory Redesign suggestions Device Unsatisfactory Figure 1 Design and manufacturing cycle for microwave T/R modules. 1 MOTIVATION In 20], we argued that although AI planning techniques can potentially be useful in several manufacturing domains, this potential cannot be realized without developing more realistic and more robust approaches to issues important to manufacturing engineers. We further argued that by looking realistically at issues important to manufacturing engineers, AI researchers might be able to discover principles relevant for AI planning in other domains. This paper attempts to address both of these objectives, in a manufacturing planning domain quite diierent from the machining domain described in 20]: the design and manufacture of complex electro-mechanical devices. More speciically, this paper focuses on the use of AI planning techniques for process planning in the design and manufacture of microwave transmit-receive (T/R) modules (described further in Section 3). Figure 1 illustrates the design and manufacturing cycle for microwave T/R modules, MOTIVATION