Generation of Collision-Free Five-Axis Sweep Scanning Path Using Graphics Engine

Five-axis sweep scanning is an emerging technology for freeform surface inspection. This new inspection manner greatly improves measurement efficiency and reduces the dynamic errors. However, the existing five-axis scanning path planning methods ignore the obstacle avoidance issue during sweep scanning, which may cause damage to the probe stylus if any collision occurs. In this paper, the collision detection is performed by a graphics engine HOOPS. An incremental algorithm is proposed to reduce the computation of the collision detection. A collision-free sweep scanning path for a freeform surface patch can be calculated within 30 s. In real experiments, the tangential velocity and acceleration in the proposed five-axis sweep scanning path are only 39.3% and 20.1% of those in the traditional three-axis scanning, which manifests that the sweep scanning path helps to reduce the kinematic loads and the dynamic error of the inspection machine.