Universal conversational programming for machine tool systems

摘要

A method is disclosed for controlling movement of machine tool systems by providing a conversational programming interface that permits a user to create a universal program for execution by various machine tool systems for machining a part, each system having at least four movable axes. The user defines program blocks including geometry definitions which are independent of any axis kinematics configuration. A first tool path relative to a first Cartesian coordinate system is generated for forming the geometry, then mapped to a second Cartesian coordinate system corresponding to the part. The mapped path is transformed to a third Cartesian coordinate system corresponding to an orientation and location of the part relative to an axis kinematics configuration of a current machine tool system. The transformed path is processed to generate positions for the movable axes of the current system.

主权项

1. A method for controlling movement of a first machine tool system having defined kinematics including at least four movable axes to machine a part, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a conversational programming interface configured to receive user input defining, without reference to the defined kinematics, a geometry to be formed on the part such that the geometry as defined may be processed by any of a plurality of other machine tool systems having at least four movable axes, including one movable axis that is different from the at least four movable axes of the first machine tool system; generating a first tool path relative to a current coordinate system for forming the geometry; transforming the first tool path into a final tool path defined relative to a workpiece coordinate system, the workpiece coordinate system being a Cartesian coordinate system corresponding to an orientation and location of the part within the first machine tool system; and processing the final tool path to generate positions for the at least four movable axes based on the defined kinematics.