A High Accuracy On-Line Contour Error Estimation Method of Five-Axis Machine Tools

Five-axis machine tools are widely utilized in the manufacturing of the parts with complex geometries, and contour error is the significant measurement for the accuracy of the final production. Generally, a high accuracy estimation of the contour error is very important since it is the premise of the high quality contouring control. Based on the foot point evaluated by the arc length between the foot point and the reference point nearest to the actual position, a high accuracy real-time contour error estimation method is proposed in this paper, and then the control law is designed to achieve the specified contouring performance. Experimental results show that the contour errors calculated by the proposed method are very close to the real ones, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.