Intelligent STEP-NC-compliant setup planning method

Abstract This paper proposes an intelligent STEP-NC-compliant setup planning method with the combination of rules, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and improved back propagation neural network (IBPNN). In the method, the STEP-NC-compliant manufacturing features are firstly automatically and reasonably grouped based on tool approach direction (TAD) selection rules. Then, the AHP is used to intelligently and accurately determine the sequence between STEP-NC-compliant manufacturing feature groups in consideration of machining stability. Next, with the combination of firefly algorithm, chaos algorithm and back propagation neural network, an IBPNN algorithm for the locating datum decision-making of STEP-NC-compliant manufacturing feature groups is presented. Further, the locating datum decision-making of STEP-NC-compliant manufacturing feature groups is intelligently and efficiently made after the machining information of a part is normalized and input into the IBPNN. At the end, the effectivity and feasibility of the proposed method are verified by case study.