A Free Form Robotic Grinding System: A Mathematical Model and an Actual System

This paper presents a robotic grinding system for work pieces with free-form geometries. A mathematical model representing the kinematics and dynamics of the system is built in the first part of the paper. Offline programming, calibration and a novel method for robotic error compensation are utilized to accurately generate the robotic grinding path. Models of the robot, the grinder and the grinding process are integrated to obtain the dynamics of the system. In the second part of the paper, an actual system is presented, with experiments done to verify the kinematic accuracy of the system. A controller based on the target tracking theory is designed to extend the system’s capability of material removal control, the effectiveness of which is shown by the simulation results. In the future, the target-tracking control strategy will be integrated with the actual system to develop a robotic grinding system capable of material removal control for free-form work pieces.