A genetic approach to the cable harness routing problem

Abstract

This paper describes a system for automatically routing cable harnesses in three-dimensional environments using a pair of genetic algorithms. The cable harness routing problem (CHRP) can be formulated as a graph search problem with a large, convex search space. A genetic approach is used to intelligently and adaptively search for routings which are close to the global optimum. The CHRP is decomposed into two problems: generating a harness configuration (topology) and routing the harness in the environment. This paper defines the various genetic operators used and suggest parameter settings which quickly find routings which match the geometry of the environment.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>