Generating disassembly tasks for selective disassembly using ontology-based disassembly knowledge representation

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to develop methods for generating disassembly tasks for selective disassembly. The disassembly task contains the disassembly information, namely, disassembly direction, disassembly tool and selective disassembly sequence. Design/methodology/approach Ontology is adopted to represent the product, and ontology rules are used to represent the disassembly knowledge. A product ontology model (POM) is introduced on the basis of material, connection matrix and interference matrix. Two types of disassembly knowledge are taken into account, one is the disassembly knowledge of disassembly tool selection and the other is the disassembly knowledge of special connections. Based on the POM and the disassembly knowledge, decision support methods are designed to generate disassembly tasks. Findings A centrifugal pump is used to demonstrate the proposed methods, and the result shows that the methods work well. Research limitations/implications The methods developed in this study are fundamental approaches. The ontology and the ontology rules can be extended with more disassembly knowledge. Originality/value The main contribution of this research is the development of methods for representing disassembly knowledge based on ontology rules and the decision support methods for generating disassembly tasks.