A MATERIAL REMOVAL MODEL FOR ROBOTIC BELT GRINDING PROCESS

Robotic belt grinding is an effective process for manufacturing workpieces with complicated free-form geometries. However, due to the relatively low stiffness in the system, more sophisticated modeling and control strategies are called for. This article presents a novel model for estimation of the material removal in the robotic belt grinding process. In particular, two process parameters, robot velocity and contact force between the workpiece and the contact wheel, are analyzed in the presented process model. A superposition method is introduced to estimate the pressure distribution in the contact area. The presented method greatly reduces the computation time compared to finite element analysis (FEA) methods and provides explicit equations for real-time system analysis. Additionally, a shape-dependent model is proposed to estimate the material removal. The model introduces local coefficients to denote the material removal ability of the system at certain locations. This developed methodology can essenti...