Free-form surface inspection path planning using improved ant colony optimisation algorithm

Abstract To improve the inspection efficiency of free-form surfaces using coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), this paper proposes a CMM path optimization method based on an improved ant colony optimisation algorithm. The composition and its mathematical model are first analysed, then algorithm is applied to minimize objective function. address problem that has difficulty jumping out local optimal solutions, introduces negative feedback mechanism in pheromone update rule probability solution, so as obtain global solution with higher probability. Experiments showed length optimised by was at least 5.2% 8.6% shorter than those traditional simulated annealing algorithms, respectively.