Removal of AM-FM harmonics using VMD technology for operational modal analysis of milling robot

The dynamics of a milling robot have a significant impact on machining efficiency and quality. Traditional experimental modal analysis (EMA) is used to study the dynamics of milling robots in the static state. However, the dynamic properties of milling robots change when they are in the operational state. To investigate the dynamics of milling robots during cutting, operational modal analysis (OMA) is used. During normal cutting, milling robots are primarily excited by cutting forces that are dominated by amplitude and frequency-modulated (AM-FM) harmonic components that are caused by the fluctuation of cutting loads and spindle speeds. Such cutting forces make the dynamic parameters identified by OMA inaccurate. To address this issue, the variational mode decomposition-OMA (VMD-OMA) method is proposed herein, which involves removing AM-FM harmonic components from the response signal using the VMD technology and subsequently using the stochastic subspace identification (SSI) algorithm to identify dynamic parameters. To verify the effectiveness of this method, simulations and experimental research have been conducted. The simulation results demonstrate that the dynamic parameters identified by VMDOMA are generally closer to the theoretical values. Experimental research conducted on a milling robot named TriMule shows that VMD-OMA can effectively eliminate AM-FM harmonics in response signals and identify the dynamic parameters of TriMule during cutting.