Process Planning for Automated Stone Cutting

The need to increase productivity, quality, and effectiveness in construction challenges researchers to seek and develop bold innovative changes. Technological adaptation of successful concepts from other industries into construction offer an important path for innovative progress. This paper provides an insight into some central aspects of automated process planning, a key element of computer‐integrated construction. A process‐planning system requires expert knowledge about the available fabrication techniques as well as an understanding about which resources can be used interchangeably for executing different tasks. It also has to be able to interpret computer‐aided design (CAD) images that are stored as stick drawings or similar primitive geometric descriptions. A prototype expert process‐planning system for automated stone cutting is discussed. This fixed plant operation has many of the characteristic problems of construction operations, such as harsh environment, heavy weights, and small production batches. The applicability to construction as well as its strengths and weaknesses are addressed based on the experiences gained from the development of the system.