Cognition Behavior Modeling of Geometrical Entities for Autonomous Assembly Path Planning

Assembly path planning (APP) concerns with finding collision-free and feasible paths for parts from their initial locations to their target locations. However, in current APP approaches parts behave lifelessly due to the lack of the ability to actively cognize their mating parts, thus making the whole process of APP suffer from a number of manual interventions. This paper proposes a cognition behavior modeling method based on interaction feature pair (IFP) and beliefs-desires-intentions (BDI) behavior model, aiming at facilitating the development of autonomous APP (AAPP). In this method, a cognition behavior model of hierarchical geometrical entities, from basic feature to compound feature and to part, is established, by combining IFP and BDI. In this way, geometrical entities are endowed with the ability to construct beliefs of themselves and the assembly environment, update their desires of finding collision-free and feasible assembly paths, and eventually accomplish the intentions to realize the desires through APP methods. On this basis, the implementation of the cognition behavior model for AAPP is introduced and detailed. A case study of a rubber wheel product indicates the feasibility of the proposed method and the enhancement of the intelligence of parts in APP.