Intuitive toolpath planning in computer-aided manufacturing systems using artificial intelligence in a virtual reality environment

Procedia CIRP, vol. 126, pp. 354–359

Abstract

CAM systems are widely used in many key industries and are essential for many machining processes such as 5-axis milling. For toolpath planning, state-of-the-art CAM systems require the user to enter many abstract parameters, making these systems difficult to use. This paper presents a more intuitive approach to toolpath planning. The approach uses convolutional neural networks to interpret user gestures in a virtual reality environment and predicts the values of the aforementioned parameters. The results show that many of these parameters can be extracted from user gestures with high accuracy, which can be used to greatly simplify toolpath planning.

Authors 4

1. Lionel Damtew corresponding Aachen Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

   Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

   Affiliation as printed

   Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Technology IPT, Steinbachstr. 17, 52074 Aachen, Germany

2. Philipp Ganser Aachen Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

   Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

   Affiliation as printed

   Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Technology IPT, Steinbachstr. 17, 52074 Aachen, Germany

3. Tommy Venek Aachen Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

   Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

   Affiliation as printed

   Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Technology IPT, Steinbachstr. 17, 52074 Aachen, Germany

4. Thomas Bergs Aachen Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL)

   Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Technology IPT, Steinbachstr. 17, 52074 Aachen, Germany

   Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University, Campus-Boulevard 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany