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The development of computer, internet and information technology puts forward higher demands for Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine tools to improve the intelligence in many aspects. Among these aspects, intelligent process planning plays an important role in current changeable market and customized product promotion by shortening production cycle and providing more stable process planning ability. To realize intelligent process planning, a CNC controller with cloud knowledge base support is proposed with ability of making process planning autonomously based on workpiece design. Previous work of knowledge model and cloud knowledge base framework design is introduced, and then this paper focuses on the complete process planning method within the intelligent CNC controller. Both interactivity between knowledge base and CNC controller, and query/infer mechanism in knowledge base are illustrated in detail. A case study of two shafts process planning is shown to demonstrate the feasibility of the intelligent process planning method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The round-off error, which is caused by cycle sampling of the interpolation period, affects the interpolation accuracy and motion smoothness of computer numerical control (CNC) machining. To consider the round-off error while restricting the motion parameters within their specified ranges, a time-rounding-up-based feedrate scheduling method is proposed. Firstly, the characteristics of S-shaped acceleration/deceleration (ACC/DEC) algorithm are analyzed by setting the jerk of each section as a variable. The expressions of jerk are derived and some important properties are discovered. According to these properties, it is possible to limit all the motion parameters in their given ranges through increasing the interpolation time and adjusting other motion parameters. Secondly, a new time-rounding-up scheme is designed to guarantee that the total interpolation time of each curve segment is an integer multiple of interpolation period. Then, based on the rounded time, the adjustment principles of the displacement and maximum feedrate are proposed to satisfy the various constraints. Its feasibility is also analyzed. Finally, based on the time-rounding-up scheme and the parameter adjustment principles, a series of feedrate scheduling methods are designed for different situations. For most situations, a non-standard S-shaped ACC/DEC profile can be generated with no round-off error and all the motion parameters can be restricted within their given ranges. A series of simulations and practical experiments are conducted to verify the good performance and applicability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CNC machine tool plays a vital role in intelligent manufacturing, but up to now, CNC controller, which works as the "brain" of the machine tool, is just a loyal executor of machining command without intelligence. This paper is aimed to improve the intelligence of CNC controller from the aspect of machining process planning, which has a great effect on product quality and production efficiency. A STEP-compliant data model is adopted. Compared to previous STEP-NC controller, this paper presents a new paradigm to integrate the ability of autonomous process planning into CNC controller based on cloud knowledge base. A hierarchical and modular architecture is designed to obtain machining process planning from cloud knowledge base timely and to conduct the machining implementation on shop floor. Furthermore, efficient and matching operation mechanism is researched. It offers a proposal to use cloud knowledge to implement intelligent manufacturing. Finally, a case study is demonstrated to verify the feasibility of this intelligent CNC controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feedrate scheduling is one of the most important factors of computer numerical control (CNC) machining and has become a crucial research problem. In order to improve the machining accuracy and motion smoothness, an optimized feedrate scheduling method considering round-off error compensation based on S-shaped acceleration/deceleration (ACC/DEC) algorithm is proposed in this paper. There are two main stages, namely initial feedrate scheduling and parameters calculation of round-off error compensation. In the stage of initial feedrate scheduling, a novel time rounding principle is introduced to reduce the round-off error. Meanwhile, the motion parameters of each section can be calculated based on the proposed feedrate scheduling method. The constant feedrate section used for round-off error compensation is always guaranteed to exist although the actual maximum feedrate might be smaller than the command feedrate. Then, in the stage of compensation parameters calculation, the round-off error can be obtained based on the proposed time rounding principle and the scheduled parameters should be updated. In order to maintain the continuity of the acceleration profile, the improved trapezoidal ACC/DEC algorithm is introduced to conduct the error compensation and the crucial parameters can be calculated based on its special properties. In addition, the feedrate look-ahead strategy is also tweaked to enhance the reliability of feedrate scheduling. Finally, a series of simulations and practical experiments with two non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curves are conducted to verify the good performance and applicability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the current requirements of low-carbon and energy-saving manufacturing, this paper puts forward a hybrid approach to energy-efficient machining for milled components via Standard for the Exchange of Product model data-Numerical Control (STEP-NC). An energy demand model based on STEP-NC is established and the problem to be solved is stated, including optimisation objectives and constraints. The developed ontology consists of OntoSTEP-NC extended to provide energy demand information support and rules to generate preliminary machining schemes (PMSs). Ant colony optimisation (ACO) is used to select the best machining scheme from the PMSs. The above two parts, namely ontology and ACO, constitute the hybrid approach presented in this study, which is implemented by developing a prototype. Finally, a test example is given to validate the proposed approach and the result shows that it can be employed to achieve energy-efficient machining of milled components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the using of real-time Ethernet (RTE) in CNC system becomes a main trend because of its low cost and high performance. In order to guarantee the performance of CNC systems which use RTE, the characteristics of RTEs must be tested according to the description in IEC61784-2 standard. In this paper, the performance indicators (PIs) described in IEC61784-2 are analyzed and the testing approaches for some selected PIs which are closely related to CNC system performance are researched. According to these PIs, the hardware and software of RTE performance testing system are implemented. With this system, the evaluation of RTEs which are going to be used in CNC system can be more general purpose to fit to different RTE communication profiles (CPs) and the accuracy of sampling can be less than 10 ns. Also, with the designed flexible software structure, analysis software can adapt to different kinds of RTE CP testing. Testing scenario and a case study for the test of EtherCAT are also given to show the feasibility of the designed testing system. With the testing system designed in this paper, the evaluation for RTEs which will be used in CNC system can be done in a simple way to guarantee the CNC system performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]