Integrating AI Planning and Integer Programming for Use in Integrated Product and Process Design

D. Nau, J. Meyer, M. Ball, J. Baras, A. Chowdhury, E. Lin, R. Rajamani, and V. Trichur

Proceedings of the 2000 AAAI Workshop on Integration of AI and OR Techniques for Combinatorial Optimization, Austin, Texas, 2000.

Abstract

This paper describes an Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) tool for the design and manufacture of microwave transmit/receive modules. The tool, which was developed as part of a contract with Northrop Grumman, was designed to combine high performance, ease of understandability by manufacturing personnel, ease of maintenance, and integration with other systems. It uses AI planning to generate process-plan elements, IP tradeoff analysis to select Pareto optimal combinations of design elements and plan elements, and a GUI for user control of the system’s operation.