Fast computation of accessibility cones for assisting 3 + 2 axis milling

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for computing all appropriate cutter postures in the 3 + 2 axis milling of the mold part. As a measure of the appropriateness of the cutter posture, the peak angle of the accessibility cone (AC) is used. We use the polygon rendering function of the graphics processing unit for computing the AC. In this method, the necessary cost in the computation is basically proportional to the number of polygons to render in generating an image of the offset shape. A novel technology named “visible surface offsetting” is developed for reducing the rendering cost of the offset shape. An experimental system is implemented and some computation results are demonstrated. Our system can determine the cutter postures appropriate for 3 + 2 axis milling of the mold part in a few minutes.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Cutter posture determination
• accessibility analysis
• offset computation
• parallel processing
• GPU

Acknowledgements

This research work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 17K06075.

ORCID

Masatomo Inui http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1496-7680

Shinji Nagano http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7197-4425

Nobuyuki Umezu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7873-7833