Ontology-based disassembly information system for enhancing disassembly planning and design

Disassembly, as one of the core steps in the end of life (EOL) activities, has been a popular topic both in industrial and academic areas. Unlike assembly, any practical disassembly process planning, which is very important for material recycling or component reuse, is still a topic of active research. One major obstacle in developing an optimal disassembly process planning system is the uncertain characteristics of the EOL products (uncertain information), such as the quality and quantity of the components and parts, which normally make a deterministic disassembly process planning impossible. How to represent and further use such uncertain information in reasoning about a realistic optimal disassembly process sequence are the most important research issues. This paper addresses these issues by developing a disassembly information framework which consists of both an ontology-based information model (domain semantics and rules) and a computational model (process planning generation methodology). The explicit domain concepts, relationships, or rules developed in the ontology-based information enhance the process planning generation methodology (computational model) and thus make the planning process efficient and more realistic. Examples are used in the end to illustrate the use of the proposed framework and methodology.