Accessibility analysis for CMM inspection planning using haptic device

Abstract

Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) are widely used in manufacturing industry to examine the conformity of produced parts with designers' intent in 3D sizes, positions and forms. Accessibility analysis plays an important roIe in CMM inspection planning. Traditional methods of accessibility analysis are based on the computation of a part's computer-aided design (CAD) model and the model of a probe. In this paper, a novel accessibility analysis method for CMM inspection planning is proposed based on a haptic virtual CMM (HVCMM). The HVCMM is an accurate model of real CMM, which simulating CMMs' operation and their measurement process in a virtual environment with haptic perception. The collision modes while performing accessibility analysis are given. To achieve quick collision detection, spatial run-length encoding is used to represent both the part and the probe. Collision response is analyzed for distinguishing whether a collision is occurred. With the force feedback when the probe collides with a part, plus showing the contact in the HVCMM environment, it is much easier to perform the accessibility analysis. The haptic response is implemented with a Phantom haptic arm from SensAble© Technologies ©2006 IEEE.