A design support system to determine the machine eligibility for manufacturing frame assemblies

• Author / Creator

  An, Shi

• As offsite construction is trending, an increasing number of construction products are fabricated in a controlled factory environment. By using automated machinery, the productivity and accuracy of construction-oriented products have been improved. However, as BIM models do not provide manufacturing information, the planning of manufacturing processes for construction-oriented products are manual, time consuming, and relying heavily on the knowledge of manufacturing engineers. To achieve automated process planning, the planning system must be able to decide machine capabilities given the BIM models, specifications of machinery, and manufacturing rules defined by domain experts. This research develops a decision-support system that automatically determines a machine’s eligibility of manufacturing the light frame assemblies using the given specifications. First, common manufacturing features of
  frame assemblies and manufacturing rules are formulated using ontologies. Second, the geometries of the manufacturing features are determined using techniques of computational
  geometry. Furthermore, manufacturing locations are determined using previously formulated manufacturing rules. Lastly, whether or not a frame defined by the BIM is manufacturable using a given machine is determined by checking if the manufacturing features are within the effective range of the machine. The developed system is tested on wood and steel frame assemblies using semi-automated framing
  machines. It is proven that the system accurately determines manufacturing features and the machine eligibility.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Construction automation
  • Building Information Modeling
  • Frame assemblies
  • Machine eligibility
  • Ontology

• Graduation date

  Fall 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-xpgk-7w10

• License

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