/sup High/LAP: a high level system for generating, representing, and evaluating assembly sequences

In this paper we present our high level assembly planning system /sup High/LAP. /sup High/LAP generates and evaluates all assembly sequences of a mechanical assembly with minimal user interaction. For the evaluation of all feasible assembly sequences several criteria are taken into account. /sup High/LAP considers for example the separability and the manipulability of the generated (sub)assemblies, Furthermore, the necessity of reorientation for a mating operation and parallelism during plan execution is considered. Another important criterion is the stability of the generated (sub)assemblies. Most of the assembly planners developed up to date use heuristics or user defined criteria to determine assembly stability for plan evaluation. In order to bring automatic assembly planning closer to reality /sup High/LAP performs a powerful geometrical and physical reasoning. The system presented is the first assembly planning system taking into account the range of all stable orientations of an assembly considering friction for plan evaluation.