JP2002312637A - Built-to-order manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To determine specifications of an article whose function, price, and delivery date are well-balanced by exchanging pieces of information of a manufacturing department and an order reception department and to speedily manufacture the article. SOLUTION: Requested specification information regarding an article or the components constituting the article is inputted from a customer, and components meeting the requested specifications are extracted from a database which holds design information on the components constituting the article; and a plan for an article composed of the extracted components is displayed out to the customer side and when an ordering confirmation signal is received from the customer, the production of the article is indicated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a production system for receiving an order for a product from a customer and manufacturing the product. In particular, it is a specification production system for making specifications based on satisfying customer requirements and the efficiency of the production system, and performing production based on the specification. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a system for performing flexible production, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-102455, a modular complex production system, an information processing system for managing production processes and production schedules, There has been proposed a system that includes a control system that controls each device of a complex manufacturing system based on information of a processing system and that performs production according to a product.

[0003]

The conventional production system is based on the premise that the specifications of the product to be produced are determined in advance, and aims at efficient production of the product having the determined specification. Met. However, recently, customer needs for products are diversifying, and it is important for customers to determine product specifications that meet their preferences and to efficiently produce products with the specifications. Here, when determining the product specifications, if the specifications are determined only based on the customer's request, the product price may be extremely high due to difficulty in manufacturing or inefficient use of the equipment. Further, when the design specification of the product cannot satisfy customer requirements, the product cannot be produced.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art by first exchanging information between a manufacturing department and an order receiving department and determining a product specification in which functions, prices and delivery dates are balanced. And to realize rapid production of the product. Another object of the present invention is to provide an order-made production system capable of exchanging information between an order-receiving department and a design department, designing a product that satisfies customer's required specifications, and producing the product.

[0005]

[MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS] This order-made production system is
In order to achieve the above object, in the order receiving section, a means for inputting a required specification of a customer, a means for holding design information of a product, a means for holding a production record of a product, and a state data of a manufacturing department are held. Means, a means for creating and presenting a product plan using these pieces of information, and a means for inputting a selection instruction for a product to be purchased, so that an order for a product can be determined. Here, the design information is generated by the design department and sent by the transmission means, and the state data of the manufacturing department is sent by the transmission means from the manufacturing department.

In order to perform manufacturing based on the ordered product specifications, means for transmitting the product specifications to the manufacturing department, manufacturing planning means for generating manufacturing information from the product specifications, and assembling of the product using the manufacturing information. Means for processing is used.

[0007] Further, when the order receiving department cannot first prepare and present a product proposal satisfying the customer's required specifications, a means for transmitting the required specifications to the design department, a product which can satisfy the required specifications is designed, and By transmitting the information to the order receiving department, it is possible to produce a product that meets the specifications required by the customer. Also, in order to be able to create and present product proposals as much as possible without passing through the design department, a means for transmitting the tendency of the customer's required specifications obtained by the ordering department to the design department, and designing with reference to the trend of the required specifications By means, a frequently requested product is designed in advance and stored in the order receiving department.

Further, in order to ensure that the ordered product can be manufactured, information indicating the characteristics of the manufacturing department possessed by the manufacturing department is transmitted to the design department so that the design department can carry out a design including a method of manufacturing the product. And means for transmitting design information designed using the information to the manufacturing department.

Here, when the product specification is determined, the product design information, the product production results, and the state data of the manufacturing department are used.
Function, price, delivery date can be estimated and balanced specifications can be determined. In other words, customer satisfaction depends not only on the function of the product, but also on the cost performance and availability of the product immediately. Since the specification can be estimated quite accurately, the customer can compare various specifications and determine the optimum specification.

[0010] Although the specifications of the ordered products vary widely,
It has a production planning system equipped with a database that stores the feature data of the components that make up the product, product structure data, and assemblability knowledge based on the functional performance of the production equipment. The order, the machine used, the equipment layout, etc. can be determined. And, since the production equipment can be configured by freely combining the positioning unit with a plurality of planar transport mechanisms and the attitude determination unit, based on the decision of the production planning system, the optimal equipment configuration for the product specification is realized and efficient. Can be manufactured.

In addition, since the customer's requirement specification can be transmitted from the ordering department to the design department or the design information can be transmitted from the design department to the order department, if the customer's requirement specification cannot be satisfied with the existing design information, A special design can be made to meet the demand. Also, by transmitting the customer's required specifications collected by the order receiving department to the design department, the design department can grasp the customer's tendency and can design product components in accordance with the customer's requirements.

Further, by transmitting the information indicating the characteristics of the manufacturing department possessed by the manufacturing department to the design department, the design department can perform the design in consideration of improving the productivity.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the present invention. The order receiving department has a product specification determining system 1 placed at each order receiving window. The manufacturing department has a manufacturing planning system 3
, An assembly processing system 4, an inspection system 15, and a purchasing system 16. The design department is a conceptual design CAD
A system 5 and a detailed design CAD system 17 are provided. The product specification determined by the order receiving department is transmitted to the manufacturing department via the order-manufacturing network 6. The order-manufacturing network 6 is also used to transmit the state data of the production equipment collected in the manufacturing section to the order receiving section. The customer's required specifications input by the order receiving department are transmitted to the design department via the order-design network 7. The order-design network 7 is also used to transmit the product design information generated by the design department to the order department. Information indicating the characteristics of the production equipment of the manufacturing department is transmitted to the design department via the manufacturing-design network 8. The manufacturing-design network 8 is also used to transmit the product design information generated by the design department to the manufacturing department.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an embodiment of the product specification determining system 1. The customer instruction input unit 1-1 receives various instructions of the customer, that is, selection of required specification input means, input of required specifications, selection of a purchased product from the displayed product plan, request of detailed specifications and appearance presentation of the product, display. It accepts an operation such as an instruction of a change specification for a given product plan.
The action monitor 1-2 interprets the customer's instruction received by the customer instruction input unit 1, activates a module corresponding to the instruction, and selects the required specification input means,
Alternatively, when a change specification item is selected, the selected item is displayed on the screen. Further, in response to a request for detailed specification or appearance presentation of a product, the requested information is displayed on a screen, and when a purchased product is selected, that fact is stored in the customer management data storage unit 1-14. . Visual 1-3
Is to input the three-dimensional shape and color of the sample presented for inputting the appearance specification from the sensor 1-4 to generate an appearance model of a product. The shape deforming unit 1-5 changes the appearance model by receiving a shape deformation instruction for the appearance model generated by the visual perception 1-3 or the appearance model of the standard product provided in the standard product model generation unit 1-7. It is. The solid modeler 1-6 modifies the shape model represented by the mathematical function when the vision 1-3 represents the three-dimensional shape data input from the sensor 1-4, and the shape deformer 1-5 modifies the shape model represented by the mathematical function. Sometimes used. The standard product model generation unit 1-7 shows a standard product model to customers who do not have clear required specifications. The customer consultation processing unit 1-8 receives a customer requirement specification indicated by a numerical value or a type and inputs it to the requirement specification storage unit 1-11, or receives a consultation regarding the delivery date of the designed product plan and receives a consultation on the delivery date examination unit 1-9. Or start. Upon receiving a consultation from the customer regarding the delivery date of the product plan, the delivery date examination unit 1-9 estimates the product model using the data of the production result holding unit 12 and the manufacturing department state data holding unit 13, and returns the result. Present to customer. The vision 1-3, the shape deformation unit 1-5, the standard product model generation unit 1-7, and the customer consultation processing unit 1-8 described above constitute the required specification input unit 9.
The customer instruction input unit 1-1 and the action monitor 1-2 constitute a selection instruction input unit 11. The input requirement specification is stored in the requirement specification storage unit 1-11. The combination design unit 1-10 designs a product using the customer's required specifications stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11, and stores the result in the product model storage unit 1-12. This design is not a completely new design for the required specifications, but a combination design in which usable parts and a processing range are determined. The required specification storage unit 1-11, the combination design unit 1-10, the product model storage unit 1-12, and the customer management data storage unit 1-1
4. The delivery date examining section 1-9 constitutes the product plan creating means 10. For this combination design, the product design information generated by the design department stored in the component data storage unit 1-13 is used. The component data storage unit 1-13 is a specific implementation of the design information holding unit 14.

The above description shows the configuration of a single product specification determination system 1.
Are installed in each sales department, and a system that controls them is used. Figure 3 shows this order management system 2.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating details of the configuration of FIG. When the order management system 2 is provided, the function of estimating the product model is performed here instead of the product specification determination system 1. That is, the delivery date examination unit 1-9 of the product specification determination system 1
When the customer receives a consultation on the delivery date of the product plan from the customer, the product model is sent to the order management system 2 to request an estimate. Then, it receives the estimation result and presents the result to the customer. Here, the product specification storage unit 2-1 is a buffer for receiving the product specification created by the product specification determination system 1 and stored in the product model storage unit 1-12 and transmitting the product specification to the manufacturing department. The production result storage unit 2-2 stores the specifications of products ordered in the past, costs and periods required for manufacturing, and the results of the state data of the production equipment at that time. This is one implementation. The operation information storage unit 2-3 stores the current status data of the production equipment transmitted from the manufacturing department, and is one embodiment of the manufacturing department status data holding unit 13. The special requirement specification storage unit 2-4 transmits the product specification determination system 1 when the product specification information stored in the component data storage unit 1-13 cannot create and present a product specification that satisfies customer requirements. It is a buffer for transmitting the customer's required specifications to the design department. The required specification result storage unit 2-5 collectively stores the required specifications of many customers input by the product specification determination system 1. The order receiving information processing section 2-6 processes the above-mentioned data, and its main functions are as follows.

The product specification created by the product specification determination system 1 is received and transmitted to the manufacturing department.

From the data relating to the specifications and production results of the products ordered in the past and the current state data of the production equipment, the cost and period for manufacturing the products with the specifications created by the product specification determination system 1 are predicted. .

If the product specification determination system 1 cannot create and present a product specification that satisfies the customer's requirements, it transmits the customer's required specifications to the design department.

[0020] A requirement specification of many customers is put together to extract a tendency of customer requirements and send it to a design department.

The product design information generated by the design department is
This is sent to each product specification determination system 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the details of the configuration of the production planning system 3. The database 3-1 stores various information shown in the figure, such as product specifications transmitted from the order receiving department, feature data of parts constituting the product, product structure data, and assembling knowledge based on the functional performance of the production equipment. What to store. The data input device 3-2 receives an operator's instruction when performing an interactive process design. The inference mechanism 3-3 is a program for determining an optimal assembly order, a used machine, and a facility layout. Arithmetic unit 3
-4 is for receiving an input from the data input device 3-2 and executing the inference mechanism 3-3. Display device 3
Reference numeral -5 indicates a process design result and information used for interactive process design.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the details of the configuration of the assembly processing system 4. This is a block diagram showing the overall control configuration of the processing or assembling apparatus when configured with a combination of three positioning units and two attitude determination units. When an order is received in the order receiving section, the manufacturing planning system 3 generates manufacturing information r from the product specifications, and this is sent to the assembly processing system 4.

The assembly processing system 4 processes or assembles parts based on the manufacturing information r. When the arrangement of the positioning unit 4-A and the attitude determining unit 4-B is determined based on the manufacturing information r, the measurement processing unit 4-U performs relative position measurement between the units using the camera 4-J. . Next, based on the information of the measurement processing unit 4-U, the coordinate conversion unit 4-S performs the relative position correction between the units.
From the result, the drive control unit 4-T controls the operation of the positioning unit 4-A and the attitude determination unit 4-B in accordance with the predetermined work order and the assembly order, and at the same time, the peripheral control unit 4-V sets the end effector 4-H. Operation control. Here, the coordinate conversion unit 4-S, the drive control unit 4-T, the measurement processing unit 4-
The communication between the U and the peripheral control unit 4-V is performed by a common bus.

Hereinafter, an operation procedure and a processing method of the order production system will be described. First, the product specification determination system 1 will be described.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of the product specification determining system 1. As shown in FIG. Customer instruction input unit 1-1
Are 8-way switch 1-101, up / down switch 1-102, mouse 1-103, keyboard 1-104
Consists of Here, the eight-way switch 1-101 and the up-down switch 1-102 are used for selecting required specification input means and instructing a change specification for the displayed product plan. The mouse 1-103 is used for selecting a purchased product from the displayed product plan, and requesting detailed specifications and appearance presentation of the product. The keyboard 1-104 is used for inputting numerical values and types of required specifications, and inputting names and codes of customers. The sample stage 1-20 is a table on which a sample is placed, and has a sensor 1-4 attached thereto. The image processor 1-21 is a visual 1 that processes a color image, a grayscale image, and a distance image input by the sensor 1-4.
-3 are stored. Visual 1
-3 also includes a module stored in the graphic computer 1-22. The graphic computer 1-22 is a computer having a graphic processing function.
7, solid modeler 1-6, customer consultation processing unit 1-8, delivery date study unit 1-9, combination design unit 1-10, required specification storage unit 1-11, as a memory, product model storage unit 1-
12, a component data storage unit 1-13, and a customer management data storage unit 1-14.

FIG. 7 shows a screen when the operation of the product specification determination system is started. In the upper part of the screen, the name of the product ordering system and the background figure are displayed. Is displayed in.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a customer's operation flow from the initial state to the completion of a product order, using a model airplane as a product example. First, the eight-way switch 1-101 is tilted forward to indicate that the use of the product order receiving system is to be started. As a result, the marker indicating the customer passes through the "entrance" and enters a place called "specialty floor". This is where the customer selects the required specification input means.
That is, the map has a "Recommended product corner" on the left, a "Photo corner" on the upper left, a "Craft corner" on the upper, and a "Corner" on the upper right.
Each corner called "Consultation Desk" is displayed. Here,
Move the 8-way switch 1-101 to the left,
When the information monitor is tilted to the upper left, upper, or upper right, the action monitor 1-2 captures the information from the customer instruction input unit 1-1.
Depends on the direction in which the 8-way switch 1-101 is turned down,
The standard product model generation unit 1-7, visual 1-3,
The shape deformation unit 1-5 and the customer consultation processing unit 1-8 are activated.

Here, when the customer wants to input the appearance specification of the product, he selects "photo corner". Thereby, the action monitor 1-2 displays the marker indicating the customer at the location of the "photo corner" and shifts the execution to the visual 1-3. The vision 1-3 inputs the three-dimensional shape and color of the sample presented by the customer by a method described later. When the processing of the visual 1-3 is completed, the marker indicating the customer returns to the “specialty floor” again. Next, to change the appearance specification input by the customer from this sample, select "Craft Corner". This allows the action monitor 1-2
Displays the marker indicating the customer at the location of the "craft corner" and shifts the execution to the shape deforming section 1-5. The shape deforming section 1-5 changes the original appearance specification as intended by the customer by a method described later. When the processing of the shape deforming unit 1-5 ends, the marker indicating the customer returns to the “specialty floor” again. Next, when the customer wants to input the performance specifications of the product, he / she selects "consultation counter". As a result, the action monitor 1-2 displays the marker indicating the customer at the location of the "consultation window" and shifts the execution to the customer consultation processing unit 1-8. The customer consultation processing unit 1-8 inputs specifications such as performance specified by the customer by a method described later. Customer consultation processing section 1-8
Is completed, the marker indicating the customer returns to the "speciality floor" again.

When the input of the customer's required specifications is completed, the customer tilts the eight-way switch 1-101 to the right and designates movement to a place called "Plaza Gate".
When the action monitor 1-2 is designated, the action monitor 1-2 displays a marker indicating the customer at the location of "Plaza Gate", and shifts the execution to the combination design unit 1-10. The combination design unit 1-10 performs product design with reference to the data stored in the parts data storage unit 1-13 for the customer's required specifications stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11 by a method described later. Then, the design result is stored in the product model storage unit 1-12.

In this state, in order for the customer to know the designed product, the customer moves from "Plaza Gate" to the street corresponding to the specification item of interest. There are several streets,
We are in a place called Plaza. In the example of FIG. 7, “performance plaza”, “drivability plaza”, and “economic plaza”
There are one of them: "Rising Speed Street", "Speed Street", "Stall Speed Street", "Stability Street", "Range Street", "Turning Radius Street", "Space Street", "Price Street" , Is connected. Here, when paying attention to the speed of an airplane as a product, an eight-way switch 1-101 is used.
First, enter "Performance Plaza" from "Plaza Gate" and then enter "Speed Street". In response to the operation of the customer, the action monitor 1-2 designates the speed as the specification of interest and starts the combination design unit 1-10.
The combination design unit 1-10 redesigns using a value that has been increased by a fixed amount and a value that has been decreased by a fixed amount around the required specification value of the speed stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11, and the result is commercialized. It is stored in the model storage unit 1-12. Then, the plurality of design results are displayed on a screen as shown in FIG. That is, 60 km / h, 70 km / h, which is initially stored in the requirement storage 1-11, and 8 km / h.
0 km / hour. If the customer wants to consider a faster airplane, the 8-way switch 1-1
01 again, action monitor 1-2
Starts the combination design unit 1-10 by designating the speed as the target specification and the increasing direction. Combination design unit 1-10
Redesigns using a value obtained by increasing the speed by a fixed amount further than the above 80 km / hour, and stores the result in the product model storage unit 1-12. Then, after the previous design results of 70 km / h and 80 km / h, the airplanes of the new design result of 90 km / h are arranged and displayed in the same format as in FIG. If the customer wants to consider an airplane with a low speed, flip the 8-way switch 1-101 down again and the action monitor 1-2 will specify the speed as the target specification and specify the decreasing direction. Combination design unit 1-10
Start Thereby, the combination design unit 1-10 performs a similar design using the value obtained by reducing the speed by a certain amount, and
The result is stored in the product model storage 1-12. The above is the case where attention is focused on speed as a specification item. However, when focusing on other specification items, if the user enters the street corresponding to the specification using the eight-way switch 1-101, the specification becomes the same as described above. You can compare products that have changed continuously. Here, as the required specification when the street is changed, the specification before entering the street is used. Therefore, paying attention to the speed first, when the product of the appropriate speed is displayed in the center of the screen and enters the “Driving distance street”, the design result when the cruising distance is changed while maintaining the speed selected earlier is maintained. Can be evaluated.

When a product which the user is interested in is found and a detailed specification of the product is to be examined, a plate of the product to be examined is picked with the mouse 1-103 on a screen displaying the product as shown in FIG. . In addition, the value of the specification item corresponding to the street and the price are displayed on this plate. Action monitor 1 that detects this
2 displays the information of the product on the screen. This example is shown in FIG.
0 is shown. As shown in FIG. 10, a detailed appearance of an airplane as a product is displayed on the left side of the screen. This appearance image is
Since it is generated from the three-dimensional model of the design result, it can be seen from a different viewpoint. Specifically, by using the eight-way switch 1-101, the rotation can be performed by rotating the upper, lower, left, and right diagonally. On the right side of the screen, detailed specifications of this airplane are shown. If the user wants to know more detailed contents of the specification item displayed here, the user can pick up the item with the mouse 1-103 to display the details of the item. As a result of the examination of the detailed specifications, if the user likes the product, he picks a menu of “product keep” at the lower right of the screen with the mouse 1-103. If you don't like it, pick the menu "End study" with the mouse 1-103.
Upon detecting this, the action monitor 1-2, when "Keep product" is picked, stores the product model storage unit 1-12.
Is stored in the customer management data storage 1-14. Then, regardless of which menu is picked, the screen returns to the screen of FIG. 9 before entering the detailed specification examination screen of this product. Here, when the purchase of the product is decided, the user moves to the “exit” using the eight-way switch 1-101, and then passes through the “exit”, and the order for the product is established. Here, the product specification is sent to the manufacturing section via the order management system 2 to start manufacturing the product.

The entrances, specialty floors, recommended corners, photo corners, craft corners, consultation desks, plaza gates, performance plazas, maneuverability plazas, economy plazas, ascending streets, speed streets, and stalls used herein. The names of speed street, stability street, cruising distance street, turning radius street, space street, price street, exit, etc. are to make the product ordering system easy for customers to understand, and the names are the target products. It may be attached appropriately according to. In short, it is only necessary to support the means for inputting the required specification of the product and the change specification item for the product plan.

FIG. 11 summarizes the processing flow of the action monitor 1-2 for realizing the above-described customer operation flow.

FIG. 12 is a drawing showing the configuration of the visual 1-3. In FIG. 12, the color image recognition unit 1-301 is 1
This is a part for recognizing the shape and color of the surface constituting the object from the color images. The image input unit 1-302 is a sensor 1-4.
This is a section for outputting color image data of the object photographed in step (1), and generally outputs data of three primary colors, red (R), green (G), and blue (B). This data is converted into hue and saturation data by the color area dividing unit 1-303, and the area of the image is divided based on these data. On the other hand, the data output from the image input unit 1-302 is also input to the grayscale image differentiation processing unit 1-304, where it is converted into brightness data, subjected to differentiation processing, and edge candidate points are extracted. The line data, which is the processing result of the color area dividing unit 1-303 and the gradation image differentiating unit 1-304, is input to the line drawing editing unit 1
Edit and modify in -305, line drawing modeling unit 1-306
Approximates a straight line, a circular arc, an elliptic arc, and a quadratic curve, and expresses parameters. This line drawing is cut out as a plane of the target object by the closed plane extraction unit 1-307. The correspondence between the position on the image and the actual position on the three-dimensional space is obtained by the visual coordinate correcting unit 1-308. The line drawing data generated by the color image recognition section 1-301 is stored in the two-dimensional data storage section 1-309. When the processing of the color image recognition unit 1-301 is performed on a plurality of images, the surface correspondence determination unit 1-310 associates surfaces between images. The plane processing unit 1-311 detects the three-dimensional coordinates of the plane part of the target object from the line drawing in which the correspondence between the planes is known. When two-dimensional data is obtained from a plurality of images, the double-view plane three-dimensional data detection unit 1
At -313, a three-dimensional coordinate value is detected. In the single-view plane processing unit 1-314, first, the surface normal is determined by the surface normal determination unit 1-315, and then the single-view plane three-dimensional data detection unit 1-316 determines the three-dimensional data. Detects dimensional coordinate values. Further, the three-dimensional data of the curved surface is processed by the free-form surface processing unit 1-.
In step 312, the range data input by the range finder input unit 1-317 is obtained by processing the data in the curved surface shape input unit 1-318. These data are integrated by the three-dimensional data integration unit 1-319. The three-dimensional data is calculated in this manner, and the structure of the input object model is defined by the structure definition unit 1-320. This result is stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11 by the recognition result output unit 1-321, and is displayed from an arbitrary direction in which the viewpoint is changed for each specified part. These operations are all performed on display 1-
322, and is performed in an interactive manner with the operator from the command input unit 1-323.

FIG. 13 is a drawing showing the configuration of the shape deforming section 1-5. The shape deforming unit 1-5 includes units hierarchized into three layers of an input layer 1-501, an intermediate layer 1-502, and a shape parameter layer 1-503, and a command analyzing unit 1-504 and a learning mechanism 1-505. It is configured. The shape parameter layer is connected to the required specification storage unit 1-11, and the appearance specification of the product can be changed by controlling the output of the shape parameter layer. Here, as the type of the deformation instruction, for example, for a model airplane, an instruction for a specific shape of an individual component such as “long wing”, an instruction for an entire specific shape such as “elongate”, "Smart"
There is a sensuous instruction like this. FIG. 14 shows an example of the transformation instruction command.

The input layer 1-501 is as shown in FIG.
The command is intuitively associated with the command and the feature quantity representing the current shape. The shape parameter layer 1-503 exists corresponding to the component of the product, and the output value defines the shape parameter of the component, for example, the enlargement / reduction ratio and shape in the X, Y, and Z directions based on the current shape. Mathematical function. This corresponds to the shape data in the required specification storage section 1-11.
The command analysis unit 1-504 also stores the required specification storage unit 1-1.
1 connected.

Here, belonging to the individual shape instruction command,
For example, if a deformation instruction "Long wings" is input,
The command analysis unit 1-504 interprets this instruction and enlarges the wing shape parameters stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11 by a certain amount in the longitudinal direction of the wing. If the length magnification is quantitatively designated instead of the vague expression of "long wing", the wing shape parameter is changed at the designated magnification. Next, when a deformation instruction belonging to the overall shape instruction command, for example, “long” is input, the command analysis unit 1-504 interprets the instruction and stores all the instructions stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11. The shape parameter of the component is expanded by a certain amount in the longitudinal direction. This allows the torso,
The wings, tails, etc. all become longer, and the entire airplane is deformed longer.

The above is the case where the command analysis unit 1-504 directly changes the shape parameters stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11. Next, the processing for the intuitive instruction command will be described. For example, when a sensory instruction command “smart” is input, the command analysis unit 1-504 gives a certain value to the input unit 1-5011 corresponding to “smart”. Input unit 1-5
Numeral 011 outputs a function value corresponding to the input value. This output value is multiplied by an intermediate layer weighting coefficient and input to each unit of the intermediate layer 1-502. Further, various special quantities are input to the input unit representing the current shape feature quantity from the shape data in the required specification storage unit 1-11. Therefore, even if you receive the same sensible instruction command of “smart”,
Appropriate deformation can be performed according to the shape at that time. Each unit of the intermediate layer 1-502 to which this numerical value is input outputs a function value shown in FIG. This output value is multiplied by the shape parameter layer weighting coefficient to obtain the shape parameter layer 1-5.
03 is input to each unit. Shape parameter layer 1-5
Each unit 03 outputs the function values shown in FIG. 13 and changes the data in the required specification storage unit 1-11. By this processing, the sensory instruction command is accepted, and the shape parameter can be converted.

In order to appropriately convert the above-described intuitive instruction commands into shape parameters, it is necessary to appropriately determine the intermediate layer weight coefficient and the shape parameter layer weight coefficient. FIG. 15 shows a method of determining the weight coefficient. First, a weight coefficient is appropriately set and set (1501). As this method, if an appropriate weighting factor can be predicted, it may be used, or if it cannot be predicted, a random number may be used. Next, one of the sensory instruction commands is input (1502).
The sensory instruction is converted by the set weighting coefficient, and a modification to the data in the required specification storage unit 1-11 is output from the shape parameter layer 1-503 (15).
03) The correction result is displayed (1504). If this result matches the intended deformation instruction, it is sufficient (1).
505) Since the initial weighting factor is not properly determined, it may not match the intended deformation instruction. In this case, the intended deformation result is input (150
6). In this method, the shape of the converted image is modified using the individual shape instruction command and the overall shape instruction command so as to match the intention, and the image is converted using the intended result and the initial weight coefficient. The difference between the results is obtained, and the weight coefficient is corrected so as to reduce the difference (1507). That is, by inputting the processing result for the sensory transformation instruction and the intention of the person who issued the sensory transformation instruction, and modifying the weighting coefficient so as to reduce the difference, the content intended by the sensory transformation instruction is automatically set. You will learn.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of the customer consultation processing section 1-8. The contents of the customer consultation include a case in which a specific required specification is specified and a product matching the specification is searched for, and a case in which a delivery date is shortened. First, this determination is made (1
601) When the input of the required specification is accepted, a menu of the required specification is displayed (1602), the specification item is designated by the customer, the numerical value and the type are input, and the contents are stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11. (1603). In the case of shortening the delivery date, the process is shifted to a delivery date reviewing unit 1-9 described later (1604). If there are multiple consultations, this process is repeated.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the configuration of the combination design unit 1-10. In the required specification storage unit 1-11, required specifications for commodities required by customers are set. If there is a type specification in the stored required specifications, the product type determination unit 1-1002 adopts the type specified in the required specifications, and the product model data unit 1-100.
5 is stored. However, when the type is not specified in the required specifications, the type of the product is determined from the items of the other required specifications by using the fuzzy rule base and stored in the product model data unit 1-1005.

When the type of the product is determined, the product parameter calculation unit 1-1003 sets the product model data unit 1-100.
Using the type stored in 5, the detailed dimensions and parameters of the airplane are determined. The calculation of the parameters is executed based on a calculation routine and a fuzzy rule base. With respect to the dimensions and parameters of the airplane calculated using all the data in the requirement specification storage unit 1-11, the relationship between the respective parameters is checked using a rule base, and a check is made to see if there is any inconsistency. . If a contradiction occurs, the data calculated there is corrected to a default value and stored in the product model data section 1-1005.

In the specification required by the customer, not all items may be specified for one product. The undefined specification calculation unit 1-1004 performs a rule-based process on the items of the specification that have not been directly specified by the customer and sets the default value to the product model data unit 1-1005. Store and supplement undefined specifications to complete the product model.

After a product model that satisfies the customer's required specifications is completed, a part data matching unit 1-1006
First, a part close to a part required for manufacturing this product is selected from the part data storage unit 1-13. The specifications of all parts are determined from the product model data unit 1-1005, dimensions and parameters of a product actually manufactured by the combination of the parts are determined, and a product model storage unit 1-1 is obtained.
2 is stored. Next, the price storage period estimating unit 1-1007 estimates the cost from the cost of each component stored in the component data storage unit 1-13, and stores the price in the product model storage unit 1-1.
2 is stored. Further, an average delivery date is obtained from the supply state of each component stored in the component data storage unit 1-13,
This is stored in the product model storage 1-12. Here, the cost is estimated by adding a constant to the sum of the cost of each part and adding a constant value, and the delivery date is estimated by finding the longest one in the supply state of each part and adding a certain margin to it. . The three-dimensional display unit 1-1008 three-dimensionally displays the appearance of the product in the product model storage unit 1-12 using computer graphics.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure stored in the required specification storage section 1-11. Data is,
As shown in the figure, it is composed of specification items and their contents.
The specification items include those that express functional performance such as climb speed, speed, stall speed, stability, cruising distance, turning radius, space, and price, and those that express appearance. The contents of the specification indicating the functional performance are codes or words indicating numerical values or types. It should be noted that there is a case where a clear value is specified for a numerical value, a case where a degree is specified, or a range as described above. The appearance specification is expressed as a set of planes or curved surfaces for each component, and is expressed as shape parameters derived from the shape.

FIG. 19 is a drawing showing an example of the data structure stored in the product model storage 1-12. This is a product model of a model airplane. The product model hierarchically expresses the relationship of the <components> that make up the product.
As shown in FIG. 19, data indicating each << component >>
A flag indicating whether the component is used, a component number stored in the component data storage unit 1-13 used as the component, a parameter for a variable factor permitted in the component, a plane and a curved surface Shape definition data represented by a set of coordinates, coordinate data indicating the positional relationship between the component and other components, and, when the component is further composed of a plurality of components, an index indicating a subordinate component thereof Etc.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure stored in the component data storage section 1-13. This is part data of a model airplane. The component data hierarchically holds data indicating components constituting the product.
As shown in FIG. 20, data indicating each component includes component management data and individual component data. The parts management data exists in units of parts class, such as "wing" and "nose" for airplanes, and holds the number of specific types belonging to that class and the number of individual part data of that type. . The individual component data includes various attributes, various constraints, supply states, costs, and lower component indexes of the component of the type. Here, attributes include various functions, materials, strength, and the like, and constraints include upper and lower limits of dimensions, processing accuracy, and the like. The supply state and cost are used by the price storage period estimation unit 1-1007 to estimate the delivery date and cost. Since the data on the supply status varies depending on the status of the manufacturing department, the order management system 2 updates the data and transmits it to each product specification determination system 1.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing another operation flow of a procedure in which a customer decides to purchase a product by using the product order receiving system of the present invention. At first, as in FIG. 8, the vehicle passes through the “entrance” and enters the “specialty floor”. Here, if the customer does not have clear required specifications, the 8-way switch 1-101
To the "Recommended products corner" where multiple recommended products are presented. The action monitor 1-2 taking this information from the customer instruction input unit 1-1 displays a marker indicating the customer at the "recommended product corner" and activates the standard product model generation unit 1-7. The standard product model generation unit 1-7 presents a recommended product to the customer by a method described later, and inputs a selection instruction from the customer. If any of these recommended products are completely satisfactory to the customer, they will pass through the “Plaza Gate” and exit through the “Exit”, and the order for the product will be completed. On the other hand, if there are some recommended products that you like quite a bit, but you want something with a slightly different specification, go to "Plaza Gate" by selecting the product closest to your request from the recommended products. Then, as in the case shown in FIG. 8, the combination design unit 1-10 performs design using the specification of the product selected in the "recommended product corner" and displays it on the street. From now on, as in the case shown in FIG.
Products can be evaluated while changing specifications by moving each street. Here, it is assumed that the user finds a product that he / she likes, but when the detailed specifications of the product are displayed, the delivery date is later than desired. In this case, after picking the menu of "Product Keep" with the mouse 1-103, go to "Consultation Desk" of "Specialty Floor" through "Plaza Gate". When the customer talks about shortening the delivery time, the customer consultation processing section 1
-8 activates a delivery date examining unit 1-9, which will be described later, and the delivery date examining unit 1-9 presents the customer with a specification change for shortening the delivery date while communicating with the order management system 2. If the customer responds that the specification change is acceptable, the specification is stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11, and the delivery date consultation process ends. Thereafter, when the customer passes through "Plaza Gate", the combination design unit 1-10 designs a product for the changed specification.
As a result, it is possible to present products whose delivery date matches the wishes of the customer, and to receive an order.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing the processing of the standard product model generation section 1-7. Standard product model generation unit 1-7
First, the specification which has received a lot of orders from the order management system 2 is received. This is stored in the required specification storage unit 1-11, the combination design unit 1-10 is started, and the design result is
In this state, it is possible to display a plurality of recently requested products. In this state, the customer who wants to examine detailed specifications of the products receives a mouse plate 1- When the pick is made at 103, the detailed appearance and detailed specifications of the product are shown in the same manner as the product presented on the street described above, and the operation of "keeping the product" and "ending the study" is accepted.

FIG. 23 is a drawing showing the processing of the delivery date examination section 1-9. The delivery date examination unit 1-9 first establishes communication with the order management system 2. Subsequently, the specification of the consulted product is sent to the order management system 2, and a detailed estimate of the delivery date is requested. Once you get this quote answer, present it to the customer. If a customer demands a faster delivery,
The order management system 2 is inquired about the specification items that are the bottleneck for shortening the delivery date and how to change the specifications for shortening the delivery date. After receiving the answer for the neck specification item, ask the customer if the specification change is acceptable. When the customer answers that the specification is acceptable, the specification is stored in the required specification storage section 1-11, and the processing of the delivery date consultation is ended.

Next, the processing of the order management system 2 will be described.

Among the functions of the order management system 2, the function of transmitting the product specification from the product specification determining system 1 to the manufacturing department, the function of transmitting the customer's required specification from the product specification determining system 1 to the design department, and the function of the design department. The function of transmitting the design information to the product specification determining system 1 can be realized by ordinary data transmission means. The features of the order management system 2 are that it is possible to estimate the cost and period for manufacturing a product having the specifications created by the product specification determination system 1 and to extract the requirements of many customers by collecting the required specifications of many customers. Yes, the method of realizing this will be described below.

First, prediction of the production cost and period of the product will be described. The cost and period required for manufacturing a product are almost the same for the same product. Different for one item. This estimate is made at two levels.

At the first level, as described above, the price storage period estimating unit 1-1007 of the product specification determining system 1 determines the cost and supply state of each component stored in the component data storage unit 1-13. Estimated from data. here,
The part cost data is set by the design department as design information by estimating from information indicating the characteristics of the production equipment transmitted from the manufacturing department. The supply status data of parts
The order management system 2 receives the order created by the manufacturing department and transmits it to each product specification determination system 1.
Since the supply state data of the parts fluctuates every day, they are updated periodically. Estimates at this level are rough, and more detailed estimates are made at the next level.

The second level estimation is performed by the order management system 2 in response to a request from the delivery date reviewing unit 1-9 of the product specification determination system 1 as follows. FIG. 24 shows the structure of a module for performing this estimation. The order receiving information processing unit 2-6 includes a cost / delivery date estimation unit 2-61 having a pattern learning function and an estimation model parameter storage unit 2-26, which are stored in the operation information storage unit 2-3. Current state data of the production equipment transmitted from the manufacturing department and stored in the production result storage unit 2-2.
Using the specification of the product ordered in the past, the cost and period required for manufacturing, and the actual state data of the production equipment at that time, transmission from the product specification determination system 1 stored in the product specification storage unit 2-1. Estimate the delivery date for this product specification that has been received. This estimation result is returned to the product specification determination system 1.

Here, the parameters of the model for performing the pattern conversion are stored in the estimation model parameter storage unit 2-62, and these parameters are used so that the past estimation data approaches the data of the cost and period actually required for the manufacturing. Learning is performed and is constantly updated to the optimal value. This makes it possible to immediately estimate the cost for the input product specification in consideration of the status of the production line and the like.

Next, the configuration of the cost / delivery date estimation unit 2-61 using pattern conversion will be described.

FIG. 25 is a conceptual diagram of an estimation method of the cost / delivery estimation unit 2-61 using the pattern conversion of FIG. In FIG. 25, product specifications, line status, etc.
The relationship between the delivery date is regarded as the pattern conversion relationship between the operation and the result, and the parameters of the pattern conversion model are determined using the past relationship between the two as learning data. The learned pattern conversion model is used to predict the cost and delivery date under new product specifications, line conditions, and the like.

FIG. 26 shows a detailed configuration example of the cost item / delivery date estimation unit 2-61 based on this concept. In FIG. 26, the estimation model parameter storage unit 2-62 stores an estimation model parameter file corresponding to a product series. This is used as a parameter of the pattern conversion model 2-601 by the cost / delivery estimation unit 2-61. Product specification storage unit 2-1 and operation information storage unit 2-3
Is processed by the patterning device 2-603 into a form suitable for inputting the pattern conversion model 2-601, input to the pattern conversion model 2-601, and output as estimated cost and delivery date. Further, the estimated value is compared with the actual value of the actual cost / delivery date, and based on this, the pattern conversion model 2-601 is corrected by the parameter conversion mechanism (pattern learning mechanism) 2-602, and is closer to the actual value. The cost and delivery date will be output. According to this configuration, a flexible cost / delivery date estimation unit 2-61 taking into account the line status and the like by the pattern learning method is realized.

Next, FIG. 27 shows items of input patterns considered necessary in the cost / delivery estimation section 2-61. FIG. 27 shows the cost of FIG. 24 (FIG. 26).
It is explanatory drawing of the input pattern item example of the delivery date estimation part 2-61. In FIG. 27, as examples of input pattern items,
Items related to product specifications (examples of automobiles), items related to parts inventory status, items related to line status, items related to sales strategy, items related to design, and the like are listed. For these items, for example, a continuous amount item is an analog value of 0 to 1, a discrete item indicating presence or absence is a binary value of 0 or 1, and an item that changes with time is a value sampled at several times. Is converted into a set of values converted into values of 0 to 1 to obtain an input pattern. By capturing the input as a pattern in this way and modeling the cost / delivery estimate as a pattern conversion to the output, the cost / delivery estimate is more accurate than the result of complex product design and production simulation. The effect that can be done simply from a simple viewpoint can be expected.

FIG. 28 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment in which the cost / delivery estimation unit 2-61 in FIG. 24 (FIG. 26) is configured using a neural network model. In FIG. 28, the neural network theory is described in (Rumelhart DE, McClelland JL
and The PDP Research group, 1986, Parallel Dest
The cost / delivery estimation unit 2-61 includes an input layer 2-611 composed of cells for inputting input patterns and a feature extraction layer 2-612 composed of cells for compressing input information. , Middle layer 2-61
3 and an output layer 2 for outputting the final estimated cost and delivery date 2-
614 and four layers. Furthermore, this output is compared with the actual cost and delivery date if it is known after the production execution,
Based on this, the weight parameter between the layers is changed by the parameter changing mechanism 2-602, and learning of the conversion model is performed so that more accurate estimated cost and delivery date can be obtained. This configuration realizes pattern conversion and learning.

Next, the extraction of the tendency of the customer request will be described. The customer request trend data is used by the product specification determination system 1 and the design department. In the product specification determination system 1, the standard product model generation unit 1-7 uses the standard product model generation unit 1-7 to create a recommended product model with many customer requests. In addition, the design department designs products that can increase the degree of freedom in product variations and specifications for specifications that are frequently requested by customers. For example, if it is found that the ordered products are concentrated in No. 2 and No. 3 in a product having 10 types of variations in total, by dividing the periphery of the specifications of No. 2 and No. 3 and increasing the variations, more customers can be obtained. Can be prepared. Here, the customer demand trend data for the design department is sent to the concept design CAD system 5, and the designer designs with reference to this data.

As shown in FIG. 29, the example of the tendency data of the customer requirement is obtained by taking the frequency distribution of the requirement specification value for each item of data stored in the requirement specification storage unit 1-11. Some of them take a series trend. These data can be created by aggregating customer required specification data of individual ordered products transmitted from the product specification determination system 1 by ordinary statistical processing.

Next, the processing of the production planning system 3 will be described with reference to FIGS.

As an example of the assembling work, assembling a model airplane as shown in FIG. 31, for example, is considered. As a method of assembling the airplane, there can be conceived any number of methods other than those shown in FIGS.
In order to select a solution suitable for actual work from among these various assembling methods, feature data of parts, positional relationship data between parts, and knowledge of assemblability are used.

Now, in order to show a method of determining the assembly direction, FIG.
Consider parts A and B shown at 0. Part A has three holes,
Part B has four holes and one lot. Assemblability knowledge is used to determine the assembly direction of such components. As an example of assemblability knowledge, generally the assemblability evaluation method (NI
KKEI MECHANICAL 1989.3.21 (pp. 38-59), etc., state that it is easiest to assemble parts from top to bottom in assembly. In the present embodiment, a method for automatically determining the assembly direction of a product based on the knowledge that "parts are most easily assembled from top to bottom" will be described.

In FIG. 30, when the number of assembly directions (↓: top to bottom, ←: horizontal direction) is totaled in the case of the part A alone, the assembling method 1 requires more assembling work in the ↓ direction.
Therefore, in the present invention, the assembling method 1 is employed in this case. However, when the product is composed of the parts A and B, the method of assembling the part A shown in the assembling method 1 is not optimal. That is, as shown in the assembling methods 3 and 4, the assembling method 4 is optimal for the whole product, and the assembling direction of the part A at this time is as follows.
The direction was not adopted when the component A was considered alone. As described above, in order to determine the optimal assembling direction for the entire product, it is necessary to calculate the total of characteristic points such as holes and lots of each part in the assembling direction in the assembling direction.

In the present invention, data as shown in FIG. 33 is used as feature data of parts to automatically perform such an operation. In FIG. 33 (a), A-Hole1
〜A-Hole 3 are coordinates representing the position and orientation of the hole with respect to A-Base in the reference coordinate system of the part A. Similarly, A-
Base represents the reference position / posture of the part A with respect to the world coordinate system. These data are, for example, assuming that the origin position vector of A-Hole 1 with respect to A-Base with respect to A-Base is P, X, and the unit vector in the Z-axis direction is 1, m, n.

[0070]

(Equation 1)

Is obtained. here

[0072]

(Equation 2)

Assume that:

The same applies to the part B. The connection relationship between these data can be expressed as shown in FIG. FIG. 34A shows a product composed of parts A and B. The positional relationship data between parts of this product is shown in FIG.
Using the expression of (b), it can be expressed as shown in FIG.

Here, it is assumed that the Z-axis direction of each feature point coordinate system is used as data indicating the assembly direction. In this way, the Z-axis direction of the feature point coordinate system of each part is determined from the top to the bottom, that is, the number of parts whose direction is opposite to the Z-axis direction of the world coordinate system with respect to an arbitrary assembly direction of the product. It is possible to add up. That is, (i) the coordinate system of the feature point of each part is expressed as relative coordinates from the reference coordinates of each part. Therefore, even if each part is moved / rotated (that is, even if the reference coordinate system of each part is moved / rotated), the position / posture of each feature point with respect to the world coordinates is represented by the relative coordinates of each feature point in the reference coordinates. It is obtained by multiplying the change matrix.

(Ii) The positional relationship between the parts constituting the product is given by connecting the relative coordinate system of the reference point and the feature point of each part by a tree structure as shown in FIG. Accordingly, in FIG. 34, when the component A is moved / rotated, the feature point coordinates (A-Hole1 to B-Hole1 to B-
It can be seen that it is necessary to perform the operation (i) for Hole 3), the reference coordinates of the part B, and the feature point coordinates (B-Rod, B-Hole1 to B-Hole4) of the part B.

(Iii) In order to examine various assembly directions as a product, for example, when the product is rotated by 90 ° around the X axis of the reference coordinate system of the part A (that is, when the product is rotated around the X axis by 4 °). Street directions are considered) for each (ii)
Is performed, and among the Z axes of the characteristic points obtained as a result, the number of the Z axes whose direction is opposite to the Z axis of the world coordinate system is totaled. Further, the same operation is performed on the reference coordinate system Y and Z axes of the component A.

(Vi) Among the assembly directions obtained as a result of the operations (iii), the Z-axis direction of the feature point is the Z-axis of the world coordinate system.
The case where the number of objects opposite to the axial direction is the largest is adopted as the product assembling direction. With this procedure, it is possible to determine the assembly direction of the product.

Here, in the operation (iii), Z of the feature point
When counting the axial direction, it is necessary to distinguish between the coordinate system reference point and the feature point that are currently targeted. This problem can be solved by, for example, adding data as shown in FIG. 35 to the component feature data. FIG.
Is composed of a coordinate name and a flag (0: reference coordinates, 1: feature coordinates) whose coordinates indicate the reference coordinates as the characteristic coordinates. Then, in the above operation (iii), when the Z-axis direction of each coordinate is checked by following the tree structure, the coordinates currently being operated are determined from the data in FIG. Is determined, and the Z-axis direction check is performed only for the characteristic coordinates.

FIG. 36 shows the above procedure. As described above, assemblability knowledge has been described as a method of determining an assembling direction using only a criterion that "it is easiest to assemble parts from top to bottom". It is also possible to use other data. The data in FIG. 37 is obtained by assigning the degree of difficulty to various assembling directions, and indicates that the smaller the numerical value, the easier the assembling. As is clear from FIG. 36, in this embodiment, it is possible to obtain the assembling directions of the feature points of the parts constituting the product with respect to various assembling directions of the product. (For example, in the above example, the Z-axis direction of the coordinate system indicating the hole in the above example) Therefore, it is determined which type of the assembly direction of the data of FIG. By adding the difficulty levels, it is possible to determine the total assembly difficulty level for various product assembly directions. By selecting the assembly direction with the lowest difficulty level, the assembly direction of the product can be determined.

Next, the interactive processing with the user will be described. That is, when the product assembling direction is determined by the above operation. (1) There are a plurality of solutions having the same "number of times of assembly from top to bottom" and difficulty.

(2) Other factors other than the assembly direction, for example,
Adopt the next best solution because there is no machine that can do any work. It is possible that. In the present invention, in order to respond to the above (1) and (2), FIG.
The interactive system shown in (a) and (b) is used. FIG.
Shows various display examples of the display device screen,
Each of the screens (a) to (c) includes a display area for a candidate of an assembling direction, a candidate No. It consists of an input area and a candidate switching menu. In particular, in displaying candidates, (i) displaying candidates using a three-dimensional three-dimensional shape. (Ii) Simultaneous display of data supporting the user's decision, such as difficulty. (Iii) A display in which the priorities are assigned in order of the degree of difficulty. Is possible. The candidate switching menu has the following meaning: next: next candidate display, previous: previous candidate display, previous item: first candidate display, previous candidate: previous candidate display. The display of the candidates is switched by performing an operation such as picking these menus with a mouse. In addition, candidate No. The input area is an area for selecting one of the candidates checked as described above.
o. Enter By providing the display 1 input means as described above, it becomes possible to select a candidate desired by the user from a plurality of candidates in the above cases (1) and (2). Each screen in FIG. 38 shows the following state.

(A): Initial state display. Only one candidate that the system considers optimal is displayed. (B): When the "next" menu is selected to display the second candidate with the highest priority. (C): When all items are displayed. (D): When all candidates are displayed in a table of their priority (No.) and reason (difficulty). When selected on this table, a three-dimensional three-dimensional shape is displayed.

The method of determining the assembly direction of the product has been described above. The result determined in this way can be used for determining the optimal arrangement of parts. That is, when assembling work is considered, an operation of bringing each part from its installation position before assembling the part is included. When the installation direction of the component is the same as the assembling direction of the component itself, operations such as a change in the component posture for assembly and re-gripping are minimized, and the number of steps required for assembly is reduced.
For this reason, the component orientation at the time of product assembly, which is determined from the product assembly direction, is adopted as the component placement direction (posture).

In the above embodiment, the method of determining the assembling direction of the product and the part using the assemblability knowledge has been described.
When determining the assembling order, it is also possible to adopt a method of assembling parts in order from the lower one in accordance with the assembling direction. However, in consideration of actual assembly, there are components that need to be rotated or slid after insertion and components that need to be held during assembly, in addition to products that can be assembled only by one-way insertion or bonding. For example, when assembling as shown in FIG. 39, when assembling in the direction of (a), after placing Cap on bady, bol
It is sufficient to tighten the body, but in the case of (b), it is necessary to hold the body and the cap together when performing the bolt tightening.

In order to determine the assembling order including the case described above, product structure data including detailed attributes of the assembling work (rotation after insertion, holding required during assembling, etc.) in the positional relationship data is required. Becomes FIG. 40 shows an example of the product structure data. In FIG. 40, each part has one-round data (left side in FIG. 40) indicated by the part name.
Further, the characteristic data of a certain part can be obtained by referring to a group of data (right side in FIG. 40) indicated by the part class name. The difficulty level in the above data represents, for example, the difficulty level shown in the above embodiment, and is automatically updated by using the difficulty level calculation method every time the assembling direction changes.

FIG. 33 or FIG.
The product structure can be expressed by connecting with a tree structure as shown in FIG.

A method of determining the assembly order using the above data will be described below. As a method of using the combination method attribute, for example, when it is necessary to rotate or slide after insertion, a high difficulty level is added in the difficulty level calculation. Here, the difficulty calculation is described in, for example, the previous embodiment.

I) Total calculation of the number of assembly directions from top to bottom. ii) Addition of difficulty level set for each type of assembly direction. However, by considering the combining method attribute, more detailed determination is possible.

In the above-described embodiment, the method of determining the assembling order in consideration of the detailed attributes of the assembling work has been described. , A more detailed study is required.

For example, consider the case where the robot shown in FIG. 41A performs the assembly work shown in FIG. In this example, as shown in (c), the movable range of the robot itself reaches the center of the worktable, but in actual assembly, it is not enough to reach the end of the robot. That is, when the component B is to be inserted into the component A as shown in (b), the hand needs to perform a linear motion in the range indicated by the arrow. For this purpose, considering the movable range of the robot, ( The robot must be installed at the position shown in b). In order to check the possibility of assembly in this way, i) function data of a machine, a tool, and the surrounding environment, such as whether the robot can perform a linear motion, and ii) parts, a machine, and a tool for checking interference. In addition, shape data of the surrounding environment is required.

FIG. 42 shows a procedure for checking the feasibility of the assembling order obtained in the above embodiment using the data of i) to ii) and the relationship between the respective data. Less than,
Each step in FIG. 42 will be described.

<Step 1> One assembly operation is taken out according to the assembly order determined in the above embodiment.

<Step 2> The moving section of the assembly work is calculated. Here, the moving section refers to a section as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 41B, and is obtained, for example, by the following method. Now, FIG. 43 shows details of the component insertion work as shown in FIG. In the figure, X, Y, Z, H: shape dimensions of each part of part A S: margin distance immediately before assembling parts A and B A-Base, B-ase: reference coordinates of parts A and B A-Botton: Characteristic coordinates B-Grasp of the hole component of component A: represents the point of time when component B is grasped.

In the above case, in order to insert the part B into the part A, i) in the World coordinate system, based on the position and orientation relationship indicated by A-Botton and B-Base ii) World coordinate It can be seen that it is sufficient to move in the minus direction of the system Z axis by the distance (S + H).
Here, i) can be obtained from the product structure data, ii) can be obtained from the assembly direction, and iii) can be obtained from the shape data.

<Step 3> For example, the machine shown in FIG.
Using the function data of the tool data, <Step
2> Select a machine / tool that can perform the work as determined in step 2.

<Step 4> Using the movable range data of the selected machine / tool, the machine is installed at a position where the work determined in <Step 2> can be executed.

<Step 5> At the installation position determined in <Step 4>, it is checked using the shape data whether there is any interference with other machines or the surrounding environment.

By repeating the above operation for each assembling operation, the assembling order and the machine / tool layout to be used are determined.

In the machine / tool selection of <Step 3> and the layout determination of <Step 4> in the embodiment shown here, a plurality of solutions may exist.

As a method of selecting one solution from among the plurality of solutions, as shown in FIG. 38, candidate solutions and information supporting the user's decision making are displayed on a display device.
A method of determining by interactive processing can be considered. For example, in selecting a machine 1 tool, it is conceivable to display the frequency of use, the operating rate, and the like simultaneously with the candidate solution to assist the user in making a decision.

In determining the layout, as shown in FIG. 44, it is also possible to perform interactive processing while viewing the display device screen.

FIG. 44 shows an assembling operation using a robot. In addition to the three-dimensional display of the robot, the table, and the parts, the three-dimensional display of the movable range and the moving section of the robot is performed. The user can change the installation position of the robot using an input device such as a mouse while viewing this screen.

When the installation position of the robot is changed, the movable range moves accordingly. Now, the inclusion relation between the movable range and the moving section is calculated, and by changing the display method of the portion within the movable range and the portion outside the movable range in the movable section (for example, it is indicated by a change in color or a change in luminance). ), It is possible to check whether or not any assembling work can be performed with any robot installation device.

The above-described method can be performed for each individual assembly operation, and it is also possible to simultaneously display and check the assembly sections related to the entire product assembly operation.

The menu at the lower right of FIG. 44 is for supporting the viewpoint change and the rotation / parallel movement of the displayed figure, and can be used by a pick operation with a mouse or the like.

A method of using machine / tool selection knowledge and machine layout knowledge to automatically perform the above-described machine / tool selection and layout determination will be described below.

First, as a system configuration, as shown in FIG. 4, machine selection knowledge, tool selection knowledge, and machine arrangement knowledge are stored in a database. In addition, an inference mechanism for performing inference using these knowledges is provided.

The processing procedure is the same as the procedure shown in FIG. 42, but the above-mentioned respective knowledge and inference mechanisms are used in <Step 3> and <Step 4> in the figure. In <Step 3>, the moving section and the function data obtained in <Step 2> are input, and the machine / tool to be used is automatically determined using the knowledge on the number of times the machine has been used, the operation rate, the number of times of setup change, and the like. In <Step4>, <Step2>
Is input, and the layout is automatically determined using the knowledge about the distribution of the movable range, the moving distance / time, etc., based on the input of the moving section obtained in the step and the movable range data of the used machine / tool determined in the <Step 3>.

The result of the production plan created as described above is sent to the assembly processing system 4 as production information r.

Next, the processing of the assembly processing system 4 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 45 is a perspective view showing a processing or assembling apparatus when a combination of one positioning unit and one attitude determination unit according to one embodiment of the present invention is used. FIG. 46 is a perspective view showing three positioning units and attitude determination. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a processing or assembling apparatus in the case of a combination of two units.
7 is a perspective view showing the positioning unit of FIGS.
48 is a perspective view showing the attitude determining unit of FIGS. 45 and 46, FIG. 49 is a perspective view showing a mechanism combining the positioning unit of FIG. 47 and the attitude determining unit of FIG. 48, and FIG. 50 is a tool provided on the positioning unit. FIG. 51 is a perspective view showing the change mechanism and the attitude holding means and position measuring means of the end effector attached to the tool changing mechanism, and FIG. 51 is a flow chart showing the work contents in the case of FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 47, the positioning unit 4-
A is a revolving part 4-AA, a vertical part 4-AB, and an arm part 4-A.
C, a three-degree-of-freedom translation mechanism consisting of a hand part 4-AD and a plane transport mechanism of the bogie part 4-AE. The turning part 4-AA has an output shaft of a direct drive motor 4-A1 inside the turning part 4-AA, which is directly connected to the turning post 4-A2. Is formed so as to rotate about the center. When the direct drive motor 4-A3 is driven, the upper and lower portions 4-AB are vertically moved via a pair of links 4-A4 and 4-A5 arranged so that the rotation angles of their output shafts are parallel to each other. Arm 4-AC in which the ends of links 4-A4 and 4-A5 engage with member 4-A6
Are formed to move up and down. Upper and lower parts 4
An electromagnetic brake 4-A7 which constitutes a gravitational load balancing means of the direct drive motor 4-A3 of -AB is provided. An output shaft of the direct drive motor 4-A8 fixed in the arm portion 4-AC and the upper and lower members 4-A6 is directly connected to the arm 4-A9, and a center shaft 4-AC is provided.
It is formed so as to rotate about o. The hand portion 4-AD includes a tool changing mechanism 4-F having the shape shown in FIG. 50, a posture holding means 4-G of an end effector 4-H attached to the tip of the tool changing mechanism 4-F, and a positioning unit. Camera 4-J as a position measuring means for measuring the relative positional relationship between 4-A and attitude determination unit 4-B
Is attached. That is, the end effector 4
The positioning of -H can be performed in a planar manner by controlling the rotation angles of the direct drive motor 4-A1 of the turning part 4-AA and the direct drive motor 4-A8 of the arm part 4-AC. By controlling the rotation angle of the AB direct drive motor 4-A5, positioning in space can be performed. When the upper and lower members 4-A6 can be moved up and down, the upper and lower parts upper and lower parts 4-AB
Center line 4-AB of direct drive motor 4-A5
a pair of links 4-A4, 4 around o
Since the end of -A5 is vibrated in the vertical direction, the upper and lower members 4
-A6 and the position of the end effector 4-H on the plane correspond to the direct drive motor 4-A of the turning portion 4-AA.
By controlling the rotation angle of the direct drive motor 4-A8 of the arm drive unit 1 and the arm unit 4-AC, it can be positioned at a desired position. On the other hand, the bogie unit 4-AE,
It is provided with a moving means for moving the entire three-degree-of-freedom translation mechanism and a fixing means for fixing after the movement, and is a so-called flat carrier. When the positioning unit 4-A moves from the carriage unit 4-AE, the posture determining unit 4-A
B, the relative positional relationship changes.
By measuring the relative position using the camera 4-J provided in D, the mutual positional relationship can be determined. Further, the positioning unit A can be provided with an end effector 4-H suitable for the work content by a tool changing mechanism 4-F provided on the hand portion 4-AD, and the posture of the end effector 4-H is the posture. The direct drive motor 4-A of the turning part 4-AA is held by the holding means 4-G.
1 and the center axis 4- in the opposite direction by an angle obtained by adding the rotation angle of the direct drive motor 4-A8 of the arm section 4-AC.
By controlling the rotation around ADo, the posture can be maintained.

As shown in FIG. 48, the attitude determining unit 4-B includes a three-degree-of-freedom rotary motion mechanism including a rotary X section 4-BK, a rotary Y section 4-BL, and a rotary Z section 4-BM, and a bogie section. 4-BN flat transport mechanism.

The rotation X section 4-BK has an output shaft of the direct drive motor 4-B11 inside the rotation Y section 4-BK.
It is directly connected to the BL rotation Y base 4-B12, and is formed to rotate about a central axis 4-BKo. The output shaft of the direct drive motor 4-B13 is connected to the rotary base 4 of the rotary Z unit 4-BM.
-B14, and is formed to rotate about the central axis 4-BLo. Here, the rotary Y base 4-B12 is provided with a direct drive motor 4-B13 and an electromagnetic brake 4-B15 which constitutes a gravitational load balancing means, with the rotary Z base 4-B14 interposed therebetween. The rotary Z portion 4-BM has an output shaft of a direct drive motor 4-B16 directly connected to a table frame 4-B17, and a table 4-B18 is mounted on the table frame 4-B17. here,
The rotary Z base 4-B14 is provided with a direct drive motor 4-B16 and an electromagnetic brake 4-B19 which constitutes a gravitational load balancing means. It is configured to be. Here, the central axes 4-BKo, 4-BLo, 4-
BMo is configured to intersect at one point, and the central axes thereof are in an orthogonal relationship. Therefore, the attitude of the table 4-B18 is determined by the rotation X
Direct drive motor 4-B11 of section 4-BK and direct drive motor 4-B13 of rotation Y section 4-BL
And direct drive motor 4 of rotary Z section 4-BM
By controlling the rotation angle of -B16, the attitude in space can be determined. On the other hand, the bogie unit 4-BN includes a moving means for moving the entire three-degree-of-freedom rotary motion mechanism and a fixing means for fixing the moving mechanism after the movement, and is a so-called planar carrier. When the attitude determination unit 4-B is moved by the number unit 4-BN, the positioning unit 4-A
The relative position can be determined by measuring the relative position using the camera 4-J provided on the hand portion 4-AD of the camera.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 49, the object handled by the end effector 4-H can be positioned by the positioning unit 4-A, and the object on the table 4-B18 can be positioned by the attitude determining unit 4-B. Posture can be determined. Further, the carriage unit 4-AE of the positioning unit 4-A or the posture determination unit 4-
Even when the arrangement is changed by the movement of the cart unit 4-BN of B, the coordinate axes can be calibrated by measuring the relative position using the camera 4-J as the position measuring means. Therefore, by combining the above two units, an arbitrary position and posture can be given to the object. In addition, two or more units can be combined to change the arrangement of each other. That is, the configuration of the equipment corresponding to the contents of the processing or assembly work can be flexibly realized.

The hand portion 4 of the positioning unit 4-A
A tool changing mechanism 4-F provided in the AD, and an end effector 4 attached to the tip of the tool changing mechanism 4-F.
FIG. 50 shows the posture holding means 4-G of H and the camera 4-J of the position measuring means. When the cylinder 4-A101 is provided at the tip of the arm 4-A9 and the piston 4-A102 is lowered by the pressurized air, the tool changing mechanism 4-F uses the cylinder A-A by the tapered tip of the piston 4-A102.
The lock ball 4-A103 provided at the lower portion of the end effector 101 is pushed out in the radial direction, and the tapered plate 4-A10 provided at the upper end of the housing 4-A104 of the end effector 4-H.
Connect directly to 5. At this time, the electrical connection is
A106 and the contact pin 4-A107 are performed, and the pneumatic connection is performed by coupling between the air passages 4-A108.

On the other hand, the posture holding means 4-G of the end effector 4-H is provided with a motor 4-A10 at the tip of the arm 4-A9.
9 and the output shaft 4-A110 is connected to the piston 4-A1.
02 is connected to the base 4-A112 of the end effector 4-AH via the Oldham coupling 4-A111, and rotates through a bearing 4-A113 provided on the housing 4-A104. Here, the Oldham coupling 4-A111 is connected to the Oldham 4-A111-1 which is directly connected to the output shaft 4-A110.
11-2, the base 4- of the end effector 4-H
The Oldham coupling 4-A111-3 is directly connected to the A112.
The connection of A111 is performed simultaneously with the exchange of the end effector 4-H by the tool exchange mechanism 4-F.

Thus, the tools or hands of the end effector 4-H corresponding to the work contents can be attached to the base 4-A112 of the end effector 4-H, and the tools or hands can be changed by the tool changing mechanism 4-F. And the posture of the tools or hands of the end effector 4-H can be held by the posture holding means 4-G. That is, it is possible to obtain many functions corresponding to the contents of processing or assembling.

FIG. 51 shows a work flow when processing or assembling work is performed from the equipment configuration of FIG. 45 to the equipment configuration of FIG.

FIG. 45 shows a state in which machining or assembling work has been completed by a combination of the positioning unit 4-2A and the attitude determining unit 4-1B. And the positioning unit 4
-1A, 4-3A and the attitude determination unit 4-2B show a standby state at the home position. Here, the positioning units 4-1A, 4-2A, 4-3A and the attitude determining units 4-1B, 4-2B are installed on a common stage 4-W. Here, the control device shown in FIG. 5, and the power line and signal line cables connecting the unit and the control device are not shown.

After the processing of the parts or the assembling work by the equipment configuration and function of FIG. 45 is completed, the process of processing the parts or the assembly work by the equipment configuration and function of FIG. 46 is now performed as shown in FIG. When a new order is received at Step 1 and the product specification of the order is determined at Step 2, Step
In step p3, data obtained by modeling the product specifications is transmitted to the manufacturing department, and in step 4, a product manufacturing plan is performed. Here, based on the work plan and operation plan for manufacturing the obtained product, Ste
At p5, the production equipment is reconfigured to construct an optimal equipment layout. In other words, the bogie units 4-1AE, 4-2A of each unit up to the combined arrangement of the positioning units 4-1B.
E, 4-1BN moves the stage 4-W on a plane and fixes it. Similarly, the cart portions 4-3AE, 4-2BN
Positioning unit 4-3A and attitude determination unit 4
The plane is moved and fixed on the stage 4-W to the combination arrangement of -2B. In Step 6, each positioning unit 4-
1A, 4-2A, 4-3A hand part 4-1AD, 4-2
AD, cameras 4-1J, 4-2J provided in 4-3AD,
4-3J (not shown), posture determination unit 4-1B,
The relative position between the units is measured by recognizing the position of a target mark or the like (not shown) provided on the table 4-1B18, 4-2B18 of 4-2B.
In Step 7, calibration is performed between the units based on the relative position measurement data to perform relative position correction. In Step 8, the parts 4-Ii and 4-Ij necessary for processing or assembling the product and the end effectors 4-1H, 4-2H ', 4-3H and 4-3H' are placed on the tables 4-1B18 and 4-2B18. set. Ste
End effector 4- used for processing or assembly in p9
1H, 4-2H, and 4-3H are respectively attached to the tool changing mechanisms 4-1 of the positioning units 4-1A, 4-2A, and 4-3A.
F, 4-2F, and 4-3F to set the end effectors 4-1H, 4-2H, and 4-3H. Step
In step 10, the processing or assembling operation of the parts is performed according to the work order and the assembly order planned in Step 4. During this Step 10, the end effectors 4-1H, 4-2H, and 4-3H are replaced based on a work plan and an operation plan. Further, when there is a direction in the processing or assembling operation of the parts and the posture needs to be held, the positioning units 4-1A and 4-2 are used.
A, 4-3A hand part 4-1AD, 4-2AD, 4-3
Tool change mechanism 4-1F, 4-2F, 4-3 provided in AD
End effectors 4-1H, 4-2 attached to the tip of F
H, 4-3H posture holding means 4-1G, 4-2G, 4-
3G operates. When the processing or assembly of the part is completed by the repetitive operation of Step 9 or Step 10, S
In step 11, the end effectors 4-1H, 4-2H, 4
Remove -3H. Finally, the product and the end effector 4-H completed in Step 12 are taken out of the table 18 and the operation is completed.

FIG. 52 is a block diagram showing a method for estimating the manufacturing cost using the information indicating the characteristics of the production equipment transmitted from the manufacturing department in the detailed design CAD system 17. In FIG. 52, the parts related to the manufacturing cost estimation of the detailed design CAD system 17 include an input / output unit (display device) 17-22, a detailed design processing unit 17-23, a design data storage unit 17-24, and a pattern learning unit. There is a manufacturing cost estimating unit 17-25 having a function, an estimation model parameter storage unit 17-26, and a past manufacturing cost result database 17-27. The determined design data is sent to the order receiving department and the manufacturing department, and the data of the manufacturing cost actually required for the manufacturing is received from the manufacturing department later.

With this configuration, the designer can use the input / output unit 17-22.
If a detailed design is performed through, an estimate result of the manufacturing cost for the detailed design can be received. Here, the design data processed by the detailed design processing unit 17-23 is stored in the design data storage unit 17-24, and the manufacturing cost estimation unit 1
Used by 7-25. This manufacturing cost estimator 1
In 7-25, the pattern exchange is performed with reference to the past production cost performance database 17-27 in which the production cost data obtained from the manufacturing department is accumulated, so that every time design data is newly input or changed, the pattern is exchanged. Is output to the input / output unit 17-22.
Here, the parameters of the model for performing the pattern exchange are stored in the estimation model parameter storage unit 17-26, and this parameter is a result of learning performed so that the past estimation data and the value of the actually required manufacturing cost approach each other. Is always updated to the optimal value. With this configuration, even when the influence of the correct manufacturing cost on the design data input by the designer on the manufacturing cost of the design specification is unclear, it is possible to promptly show the designer and guide the design in consideration of the manufacturing cost.
The production cost obtained in this way is transferred to each product specification determination system 1 via the order management system 2 or directly.
To be used for pricing.

[0125]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

1. By exchanging information between the ordering department and the manufacturing department, it is possible to determine product specifications that balance functions, prices, and delivery dates.

[0127] 2. Plan the optimal process plan and equipment configuration,
Based on this, a flexible equipment configuration can be realized, so that products with various specifications can be manufactured efficiently.

3. By exchanging information between the ordering department and the design department, it is possible to quickly design and manufacture products with required specifications that cannot be realized with the prepared parts. Further, the design department receives the tendency of the customer request from the order receiving department, and it is possible to design a product that meets the request.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of a configuration of a product specification determination system 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of a configuration of an order management system 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing details of a configuration of a manufacturing planning system 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing details of a configuration of an assembly processing system 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a product specification determination system 1.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a screen when the operation of the product specification determination system 1 is started.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a customer operation flow;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for presenting a plurality of products.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing detailed specifications of a product.

FIG. 11 is a diagram summarizing the processing flow of the action monitor 1-2.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a configuration of a visual system 1-3.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration of a shape deforming unit 1-5.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a deformation instruction command and types of input layer units.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a method of determining a weight coefficient.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a processing flow of a customer consultation processing unit 1-8.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a configuration of a combination design unit 1-10.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure stored in a requirement specification storage unit 1-11.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a data structure stored in a product model storage unit 1-12.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure stored in a component data storage unit 1-13;

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing another example of a customer operation flow.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing processing of a standard product model generation unit 1-7.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing processing of a delivery date examination unit 1-9.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing the structure of an estimation module.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing the concept of an estimation method.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration example of a cost / delivery estimation unit 2-61.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example of items of an input pattern used for estimation.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an embodiment in which the cost / delivery estimation unit 2-61 is configured by a neural network model.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of customer request trend data;

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a relationship between an assembling method and an assembling direction.

FIG. 31 shows the structure of a model airplane.

FIG. 32 is a view showing a variation of an assembling method.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing a data structure of a part.

FIG. 34 shows a data structure of a product.

FIG. 35 is a diagram showing coordinate system identification data;

FIG. 36 is a diagram showing an assembly direction determination procedure.

FIG. 37 is a diagram showing an example of assemblability knowledge;

FIG. 38 is a diagram showing a display example of a process design screen.

FIG. 39 shows an example of an assembling operation.

FIG. 40 is a diagram showing product structure data.

FIG. 41 is a diagram showing a relationship between an assembly operation and a movable range.

FIG. 42 is a diagram showing an assembly order, a machine / tool to be used, and a layout determination procedure.

FIG. 43 is an explanatory view of an insertion operation.

FIG. 44 shows an interactive layout determination screen.

FIG. 45 shows a positioning unit 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Perspective view showing a processing or assembling apparatus when configured with a combination of tables

FIG. 46 shows three positioning units and posture determination unit 2
Perspective view showing a processing or assembling apparatus when configured with a combination of tables

FIG. 47 is a perspective view showing the positioning unit of FIGS. 45 and 46.

FIG. 48 is a perspective view showing the attitude determining unit shown in FIGS. 45 and 46.

FIG. 49 is a perspective view showing a mechanism combining the positioning unit of FIG. 47 and the attitude determination unit of FIG. 48;

FIG. 50 shows a tool changing mechanism provided in the positioning unit;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a posture holding unit and a position measuring unit of the end effector attached to the tool changing mechanism.

FIG. 51 is a flowchart of work contents in the case of FIGS. 45 and 46;

FIG. 52 is a view showing a method of estimating a manufacturing cost in the detailed CAD system 17;

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Product specification determination system, 2: Order management system, 3:
... Production planning system, 4 ... Assembly processing system, 5 ... Conceptual design CAD system, 6 ...
7: Order-to-design network, 8: Manufacturing-to-design network, 9: Required specification input means, 10: Product plan creation means, 11: Selection instruction input means, 12: Production result holding means, 13: Manufacturing department status data Holding means, 14: Design information holding means, 15: Inspection system, 16: Purchasing system, 17: Detailed design CAD system, 1-1: Customer instruction input section, 1-2: Action monitor, 1-3: Visual, 1
-4: sensor, 1-5: shape deformation unit, 1-6: solid modeler, 1-7: standard product model generation unit, 1-8: customer consultation processing unit, 1-9: delivery date examination unit, 1-10 ... combination design department, 1-11 ... required specification storage, 1-12 ... product model storage, 1-13 ... part data storage, 1-14 ... customer management data storage, 1-20 ... sample stage, 1
-21 image processor 1-22 graphic computer 1-101 8-way switch 1-102 up-down switch 1-103 mouse 1-104 keyboard 1-130 color image recognition unit 1-302
... Image input unit, 1-303 ... Color area division unit, 1-3
04: gradation image differentiation processing unit, 1-305: line drawing editing unit,
1-306: Line drawing modeling unit, 1-307: Closed surface extraction unit, 1-308: Visual coordinate correction unit, 1-309: 2-dimensional data storage unit, 1-310: Surface correspondence determination unit, 1-311
... Plane processing unit, 1-312 ... Free-form surface processing unit, 1-31
Reference numeral 3: double-view plane three-dimensional data detection unit, 1-314: single-view plane processing unit, 1-315: surface normal determining unit, 1-316: single-view plane three-dimensional data detection unit, 1-317: range finder Input unit, 1-318 ... curved surface input unit, 1-319 ... three-dimensional data integration unit, 1-320 ... structure definition unit, 1-321
... Recognition result output unit, 1-322 ... Display, 1-3
23 command input section, 1-501 input layer, 1-50
2: Middle layer, 1-503: Shape parameter layer, 1-504
... Command analysis unit, 1-505 Learning mechanism, 1-501
1. Input unit corresponding to "smart", 1-100
2 ... Product type determination section, 1-1003: Product parameter calculation section, 1-1004 ... Undefined specification calculation section, 1-100
5: product model data section, 1-1006: matching section with part data, 1-1007: price storage period estimating section, 1-
1008 ... three-dimensional display unit. 2-1: Product specification storage unit, 2
-2: production result storage unit, 2-3 ... operation information storage unit, 2-
4 ... Special requirement specification storage unit, 2-5 ... Requirement specification result storage unit, 2-6 ... Order information processing unit, 3-1 ... Database,
3-2 Data input device, 3-3 Inference mechanism, 3-4 ...
Arithmetic unit, 3-5 display unit, 4-A positioning unit, 4-B posture determination unit, 4-F tool exchange mechanism, 4-G posture holding means, 4-H end effector, 4- J: camera, 4-S: coordinate conversion unit, 4-T: drive control unit, 4-U: measurement processing unit, 4-V: peripheral control unit,
4-AA: revolving section, 4-AB: up / down section, 4-AC: arm section, 4-AD: hand section, 4-AE: bogie section of positioning unit, 4-BK: rotary X section, 4-BL: Rotation Y part,
4-BM: rotating Z portion; 4-BN: bogie portion of the attitude determination unit; r: manufacturing information; 17-22: input / output portion;
3 ... Detailed design processing unit, 17-24 ... Design data storage unit,
17-25: Manufacturing cost estimating unit, 17-26: Estimation model parameter storage unit, 17-27: Past manufacturing cost result database.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hideaki Suzuki 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Hitachi, Ltd.Production Technology Research Institute (72) Hideaki Matoba 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Address: Hitachi, Ltd., Production Technology Laboratory (72) Inventor Masahiro Watanabe 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. Production Technology Laboratory (72) Inventor: Hidetoshi Inaba Yoshida, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture 292, Machi, Hitachi, Ltd.Production Technology Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Takashi Osari 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Ltd.Hitachi Manufacturing Technology Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Masato Uno Totsuka, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture 292 Yoshida-cho, Ward Inside Production Technology Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor Toru Mita Kana 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kawasaki Prefecture, Hitachi, Ltd.Production Technology Research Institute (72) Inventor Ichiro Taniguchi 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd.Production Technology Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Koichi Sugimoto, 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Hitachi, Ltd.Production Technology Research Laboratories (72) Inventor Yoshio Matsumoto 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture F-term in the Hitachi, Ltd. Reference) 3C100 AA08 AA16 AA43 BB02 BB03 BB04 BB06 BB15 BB39 CC05

Claims (7)

[Claims] Claims 1. A method for producing a product or system to order, comprising: information for specifying a general name or general type of the part or function from the customer with respect to a part or function constituting a product or system desired by the customer. Based on the information that specifies the general name or general type of the component or function, a list information that can be selected for the specified component or function is extracted from a database that holds specification information on the component or function. Transmitting the list information to the customer side, receiving selection information indicating a part or function selected by the customer from the list information, and transmitting a price of a product or system including the selected part or function to the customer side. A production-to-order method characterized by being presented. 2. A method for producing a product or a system on a make-to-order basis, wherein information relating to a part or a function constituting a product or a system desired by a customer is specified by a general name or a general type of the part or function from the customer. Based on the information that specifies the general name or general type of the component or function, a list information that can be selected for the specified component or function is extracted from a database that holds specification information on the component or function. Transmitting the list information to the customer side, and upon receiving selection information indicating a part or function selected by the customer from the list information, displaying a product proposal of a product or system including the selected part or function. , And a method for making to order, characterized in that the customer presents the price. 3. An order-made production method for a product or a system, wherein a general name or a general type of a plurality of parts and functions relating to parts and functions constituting a product or a system desired by a customer is output and displayed on the customer side. , Of the generic name or generic type of the plurality of parts and functions,
Upon receiving input of information for specifying at least one, from a database holding specification information on parts and functions, extracting selectable list information on the specified parts or functions, Receiving and displaying selection information indicating a part or function selected by the customer from the list information, and presenting a price of a product or a system including the selected part or function to the customer side. Make-to-order production method. 4. A production order method for a product or a system, wherein a general name or a general type of a plurality of parts and functions relating to parts and functions constituting a product or a system which a customer desires to purchase is output and displayed on the customer side. , Of the generic name or generic type of the plurality of parts and functions,
Upon receiving input of information for specifying at least one, from a database holding specification information on parts and functions, extracting selectable list information on the specified parts or functions, When receiving selection information indicating a part or function selected by the customer from the list information, a product proposal display of a product or system including the selected part or function, and presentation of a price are displayed. A production-to-order method characterized by the customer. 5. The order-made production method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the customer is requested to purchase a product or a system. A custom-made production method characterized by transmitting delivery date information of the product or system to a customer before the order of the product or system is completed. 6. The order-made production method according to claim 1, wherein the selected one part or function is a part or function selected from other types and a product or system. A custom-made production method characterized by presenting, to a customer side, a physical configuration that interferes with each other. 7. The order-made production method according to claim 1, wherein the selected one part or function is a part or function selected from other types and a product or system. A custom-made production method characterized by presenting, to the customer side, any mutual interference regarding performance consistency.