Route Optimization in Measuring Surfaces on Coordinate Measuring Machines

One of the current problems in measuring surfaces on Coordinate Measuring Machines is currently increasing productivity. A promising way to solve this problem is to optimize the route of the touch sensor of Coordinate Measuring Machines. Currently this task has no standard mathematical solution. In this regard, we propose to optimize the route of measurement based on the spatial Traveling Salesman Problem. Traveling Salesman Problem can be solved by exact methods (for example, by the Branch and Bound Method) or by approximate methods (heuristic). It is known that optimization time for exact methods is an exponential function, and for a heuristic method it is a polynomial function. The article proposes the use of an Ant Colony algorithm. With the help of the developed program, a computer simulation of the route of the touch sensor using the branch and bound method and the adaptive Ant Colony Method was performed. The accuracy and time of the solution were investigated for a different number of measurement points on the plane, cylinder and sphere. It has been established that the Ant Colony Method gives a solution close to the optimal one and requires 5-6 times less time to search for it compared to the Branch and Bound Method.