Convex relaxation for optimal fixture layout design. (3rd July 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhong, Zhen; Mou, Shancong; Hunt, Jeffrey H.; Shi, Jianjun
• Is Part Of: IISE transactions. Volume 55:Number 7(2023)
• Page Start: 746
• Page End: 754
• Publication Date: 2023-07-03
• Subjects: Convex relaxation -- composite fuselage assembly -- FEA model -- fixture design; Industrial engineering -- Periodicals; Systems engineering -- Periodicals; Industrial engineering; Systems engineering; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 670.285
• DOI: 10.1080/24725854.2022.2102272
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2472-5854

Abstract

Abstract: This article proposes a general fixture layout design framework that directly integrates the system equation with the convex relaxation method. Note that the optimal fixture design problem is a large-scale combinatorial optimization problem; we relax it to a convex Semi-Definite Programming (SDP) problem by adopting sparse learning and SDP relaxation techniques. It can be solved efficiently by existing convex optimization algorithms and thus generates a near-optimal fixture layout. A real case study in the half-to-half fuselage assembly process indicates the superiority of our proposed algorithm compared to the current industry practice and state-of-art methods.