Intelligent configuring for agile joint jig based on smart composite jig model

Agile joint jig (AJJ) is a novel and promising reconfigurable assembly jig, which is put forward to deal with the disadvantages of traditional dedicated assembly jig in aerospace industry. For AJJ design, it is under the combined influence of aircraft product and assembly process requirements, especially the experience and knowledge of designers. Although case-based reasoning (CBR) gives the possibility to make fixture design more efficiently, this method has its weakness that the most similar case maybe is not the optimal selection and the designers still depend on their knowledge to determine what changes need to be made and how these changes can be achieved. In order to lower the requirement for designers’ skills and enhance the AJJ design efficiency, this paper presents an intelligent configuration method based on smart composite jig model (SCJM). Firstly, the concept and definition of SCJM are presented. It is not only a generic assembly jig architecture for a certain aircraft product family but also appends information and knowledge through MBD (model-based definition). Secondly, the requirement information model including product general information and assembly process information and so on is established with MBD for driving AJJ design automatically. Based on the above models, the intelligent configuration method for AJJ is proposed and realized by combing auto-selection reasoning with auto-assembly reasoning. The auto-selection reasoning is to achieve that the standardized components are selected actively by matching attributes between SCJM and product model. The auto-assembly reasoning is to automatically assemble the selected components in terms of the typical constraint relationships. By these ways, the SCJM can perceive the product assembly requirements by itself and then achieve appropriate design automatically. Finally, a computer-aided system for intelligent design of airplane assembly jig was developed. The results indicated that the proposed methods are able to significantly improve the design efficiency and quality of reconfigurable assembly jig.