On the Generation of Line Balanced Assembly Sequences Based on the Evaluation of Assembly Work Time Using Neural Network

신경회로망기법에 의한 조립작업시간의 추정 및 라인밸런싱을 고려한 조립순서 추론

This paper presents a method for automatic generation of line balanced assembly sequences based on disassemblability and proposes a method of evaluating an assembly work time using neural networks. Since a line balancing problem in flexible assembly system requires a sophisticated planning method, reasoning about line balanced assembly sequences is an important field of concern for planning assembly lay-out. For the efficient inference of line balanced assembly sequences, many works have been reported on how to evaluate an assembly work time at each work station. However, most of them have some limitations in that they use cumbersome user query or approximated assembly work time data without considering assembly conditions. To overcome such criticism, this paper proposes a new approach to mathematically verify assembly conditions based on disassemblability. Based upon the results, we present a method of evaluating assembly work time using neural networks. The proposed method provides an effective means of solving the line balancing problem and gives a design guidance of planning assembly lay-out in flexible assembly application. An example study is given to illustrate the concepts and procedure of the proposed scheme.