Development of a CAM package for robotic deburring & polishing of components with intricate geometry

This thesis deals with the development of a CAM package based on AutoCAD for refurbished and new components with intricate geometry. By using a deburring robot such as the Yamaha Zeta-1 Robot, deburring and polishing of a refurbished workpiece involves analyzing the geometry of the workpiece, determining and designing tool path, generating tool path data, animating the path traced by the robot tool and verifying the tool path on the Yamaha Zeta-1 Robot. The most popular PC-based CAD package, AutoCAD, is chosen as the developing platform. A software package mainly programmed in AutoLISP, which is an underlying software application of AutoCAD, functions as a processor of the solid models of the workpieces and generates tool path data for the robot. The Yamaha Zeta-1 Robot, which is designed specifically for precision deburring, is chosen for executing the generated tool path. The development is coined by exploiting the powers of AutoLISP, C, C++ and DCL (Dialogue Control Language). This CAM package functions as an interface between the workpiece and the user, and a postprocessor for the tool location for the robot. A kinematic model of the Yamaha Zeta-1 has been established and a commercial virtual reality application software package, WorldToolKit, is employed in animating the real robot based on the Yamaha Zeta-1's geometric parameters and kinematics. This virtual robot serves as a virtual reality simulator to test and verify the machining path generated. Experimental verification of the post-processed data generated by the developed software is presented for both deburring and polishing features. The results show the successful implementation of this CAM software package