Assembly Parti Distribution Category Uc{705 Sand94{1819 Unlimited Release Tioning with a Constant Number of Translations

We consider the following problem that arises in assembly planning: given an assembly, identify a subassembly that can be removed as a rigid object without disturbing the rest of the assembly. This is the assembly partitioning problem. Speci cally, we consider planar assemblies of simple polygons and subassembly removal paths consisting of a single nite translation followed by a translation to in nity. We show that such a subassembly and removal path can be determined in O(nN) time, where n is the number of polygons in the assembly and N is the total number of edges and vertices of all the parts together. We then extend this formulation to removal paths consisting of a small number of nite translations, followed by a translation to in nity. In this case the algorithm runs in time polynomial in the number of parts, but exponential in the number of translations a path may contain. Work on this paper by the rst author has been supported by a grant from the Stanford Integrated Manufacturing Association (SIMA), by NSF/ARPA Grant IRI-9306544, and by NSF Grant CCR-9215219. This research was performed while the second author was at Stanford University, and has been supported by the Stanford Integrated Manufacturing Association (SIMA).