An ultrasonic pressure field measurement system for ultrasonic-assisted machining based on 6-axis industrial robot

Acoustic signals are commonly used to analyze the vibration characteristics of ultrasonic transducers in many fields such as ultrasonic-assisted machining. In traditional measurements, the microphone is fixed at one or several points to measure the acoustic signal. However, the vibration characteristics of the ultrasonic transducer cannot be efficiently analyzed according to acoustic signals from one or several points without knowing the distribution of the sound pressure field. To comprehensively and efficiently analyze the acoustic signals radiated from the ultrasonic transducer, an ultrasonic pressure field measurement system for ultrasonic transducers in ultrasonic-assisted machining based on a 6-axis industrial robot is presented. A free-field condenser microphone is fixed to an industrial robot and can be positioned by the industrial robot to measure points in any attitude. Compared to traditional measurement methods, measurements based on industrial robots can improve the measurement range and flexibility. In addition, a robot measurement path generation algorithm based on the ant colony algorithm is proposed. The algorithm can generate and optimize measurement paths based on the shape of the tool to reduce measurement time and improve measurement accuracy. In addition to ultrasonic-assisted machining, this system can also be used in many applications that require ultrasonic transducers, such as acoustic field measurements for ultrasonic cleaners. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed method with two examples.