Producing Process Plans out of CAD Files through AI Techniques

MUMP (MUlti-Methods Planner) is a tool developed in ESPRIT P865 for building expert process planning systems. MUMP allows the combination of variant and generative approaches to process planning and recognizes the form features on the workpiece out of its description in a CAD system. The experience made with the application of the system to the case of aircraft manufacturing has influenced the choice and functionality of the techniques and tools made available in MUMP. We give a general view of the system and explain the rationale behind it and report on the experience gained in building the current experimental version.