Modeling, planning, and control of robotic grinding on free-form surface using a force-controlled belt grinding tool

With the increasing demand for efficiency and intelligence in grinding operations, the research of the automatic robotic processing method for complex surface workpieces becomes necessary. This paper proposes a new approach for robotic grinding on the free-form surface. Particularly, the authors design a novel force-controlled belt grinding tool, on which a contact model of grinding process is further developed. In order to improve the efficiency of grinding, a rapid robot trajectory planning method is proposed based on the workpiece's computer-aided design model, and the process parameters are identified from simple experiments. Furthermore, a piecewise parameterized force control method based on impendence control for the tool is presented, and the purpose of this method is to compensate for the error caused by the rapid planning method and low consistency workblanks. Finally, the grinding experiments of the plate workpiece and complex shape workpiece are performed. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective.