Industrial Applications of Artificial Intelligence

This paper reviews current and future applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Knowledge-Based systems to manufacturing. This is not a review of robotics technology, but focuses, instead, on manufacturing decision problems. Manufacturing, in this case, refers to the entire product life cycle: product design, production planning, production, distribution, and field service and reclamation. The review focuses on where, at each point in the product life cycle, there are problems to be solved, where AI is currently being applied, and where it may be applied in the future. The results of a recent survey note that research and development in this area has increased significantly in the 1980s. Most focus on spot applications of the technology. More recent work is taking a systemic view of manufacturing.