Features and the principle of locality in process planning

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Abstract
This paper first maps the concepts of classical, general-purpose planning to the realm of manufacturing process planning. Manufacturing features and processes are considered as mediators between design and manufacturing on a level of abstraction that supports the adequacy of representation of various kinds of process planning knowledge. It is shown how profound problems of planning theory manifest themselves in process planning and how the organization of domain knowledge around features helps to overcome these problems. Such a locality-based representation, however, requires that both part models and planning strategies have some new qualities, such as the possibility of causal reasoning from the geometric model and the ability to follow global objectives. The paper emphasizes the importance of having a planning strategy that explores the space of potential solutions. Finally, such a strategy, which uses a genetic metaphor, will be outlined