Title: A two-stage approach optimising PCB assembly on the sequential pick-and-place machine by a score-based slot selection method and a swarm intelligence approach

Authors: Kehan Zeng; Yi Guo

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Huizhou University, Huizhou, Guangdong 516007, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering, Henan Institute of Engineering, Zhengzhou, 451191, China

Abstract: PCB assembly on the sequential pick-and-place machine is a typical NP-hard combinatorial optimisation problem which is a critical bottleneck in electronic product manufacturing industry. In this paper, a two-stage approach is proposed. In the first stage, the distance score with weights selection (DSWS) method is proposed to select a suited set of slots to load feeders. In the second stage, a novel swarm intelligence approach, called the elimination with decay-based swarm intelligence approach (EDSIA) is proposed to solve the problems of assignment of feeders to the selected slots and the placement sequence of the components. In EDSIA, a new population evolution mechanism, based on proposed elimination coefficient and decay factor is proposed to propel the population forwards the global optimum. The numerical results and comparisons illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed two-stage approach.

Keywords: PCB assembly; score-based slot selection; swarm intelligence; tour generating algorithm; optimisation; sequential pick-and-place machines; printed circuit boards; feeder assignment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSI.2014.064781

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity, 2014 Vol.8 No.1/2/3, pp.185 - 207

Published online: 21 Oct 2014 *

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