A feature-based inspection planning system for coordinate measuring machines

A feature-based inspection planning system is proposed in this research to develop more efficient measuring methodology for a CMM for complicated workpieces having many primitive form features. The proposed strategy is composed of two stages; global inspection planning and local inspection planning stages. In the global inspection planning stage, the system generates an optimum inspection sequence of the features in a part. The sequence is determined by analyzing the feature information such as the nested relations and the possible probe approach directions of the features, and by forming feature groups. A series of heuristic rules are developed to accomplish it. In the local inspection planning stage, each feature is decomposed into its constituent geometric elements, and then the number of sampling points, the locations of the points and the optimum probing sequence are determined. Also, an effective collision avoidance methodology is proposed. After required simulation, the effectiveness of the proposed system is verified .