Genetic Algorithm for Solving Printed Circuit Board Assembly Planning Problems

A new application of the genetic algorithm approach is introduced to solved printed circuit board assembly planning problems. The developed genetic algorithm finds the sequence of component placement/insertion and the arrangement of feeders simultaneously, for achieving the shortest assembly time, for two main types of assembly machines. The algorithm uses links (parents) to represent possible solutions and it applies genetic operators to generate new links (offspring) in an iterative procedure to obtain nearly optimal solutions. Examples are provided to illustrate solutions generated by the algorithm