Process modeling for robotic polishing

This paper presents the solutions adopted for a robotic polishing cell for mold manufacturing. Mold finishing is frequently carried out manually; these kinds of operations are iterative, time consuming and require experience. Automation can introduce cost reduction minimizing production times on such manual finishing operations. The research shown in this paper provides an overall solution without discarding aspects that could be relevant to the task considered in the mold making environment. Most of the mold makers usually employ CAD/CAM systems in order to design workpieces and to prepare the CNC programs to manufacture the parts, this CAD data can also be used to prepare programs for the actual robot finishing of these parts. In this work, an automatic planning and programming system based on data from a CAD system is described. The direct use of the paths implies difficulties of adaptation mostly when free-shaped surfaces are treated, so that the use of a constant contact force control has also been considered. To accomplish the automation of the process it is necessary to establish a behavior model of the system’s variables. This fact allows the definition of the task specifications of the tools and, as a result, both the planning system and the control strategy by stages of the polishing process. © 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.