Integration of Computer Aided Design and Dimensional Inspection Through Automatic Process Planning and Probe Path Generation

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9634727 Requicha This award provides funding for investigating the development of software systems for automatically generating all the information necessary to inspect mechanical parts with computer-controlled Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs). The focus will be on unsculptured parts that may contain many 2.5-dimensional features such as bosses, slots and pockets. The primary input will be a solid model of a workpiece to be measured and toleranced according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) dimensioning and tolerancing standard. The output will be a set of setups, each associated with surface features to be inspected, probes to be used, probe orientations, points to be inspected in each feature, and CMM programs expressed in the ANSI standard language for CMM control. This work will provide a direct link between the Computer Aided Design and metrology activities in a product's life cycle. If successful, this research will result in both scientific and industrial advances. Scientifically, it will improve the current understanding of spatial reasoning, which is a difficult area of artificial intelligence. Industrially, it will provide a means for significantly reducing the costs of dimensional inspection of mechanical parts, for reducing inspection time, and for promoting consistency in part measurement. All of these benefit the overall manufacturing process and product quality, which is increasingly important in today's marketplace. This work impacts directly the measurement of mechanical parts (1) to decide whether final products or supplier parts are acceptable, (2) to qualify manufacturing processes, that is, to show that they produce the required features, and (3) to control processes by identifying dimensional trends that must be corrected by adjusting process parameters.