A path planning approach to (dis)assembly sequencing

Abstract

The paper describes a new method for simultaneously (dis)assembly sequencing and path planning. Indeed, both are parts of a same problem that can be formulated in a general path planning framework. Based on this formulation, the algorithm proposed in this paper extends a popular sampling-based path planner, RRT, to solve general (dis)assembly planning problems involving objects with arbitrary shapes, and possibly requiring non-monotonic (dis)assembly sequences. The method does not require complex geometric computations, and is easy to implement. Experimental results show the efficiency of the method for solving a large class of problems.