Product of exponential model for geometric error integration of multi-axis machine tools

This paper proposes a product of exponential (POE) model to integrate the geometric errors of multi-axis machine tools. Firstly, three twists are established to represent the six basic error components of each axis in an original way according to the geometric definition of the errors and twists. The three twists represent the basic errors in x, y, and z directions, respectively. One error POE model is established to integrate the three twists. This error POE formula is homogeneous and can express the geometric meaning of the basic errors, which is precise enough to improve the accuracy of the geometric error model. Secondly, squareness errors are taken into account using POE method to make the POE model of geometric errors more systematic. Two methods are proposed to obtain the POE models of squareness errors according to their geometric properties: The first method bases on the geometric definition of errors to obtain the twists directly; the other method uses the adjoint matrix through coordinate system transformation. Moreover, the topological structure of the machine tools is introduced into the POE method to make the POE model more reasonable and accurate. It can organize the obtained 14 twists and eight POE models of the three-axis machine tools. According to the order of these POE models multiplications, the integrated POE model of geometric errors is established. Finally, the experiments have been conducted on an MV-5A three-axis vertical machining center to verify the model. The results show that the integrated POE model is effective and precise enough. The error field of machine tool is obtained according to the error model, which is significant for the error prediction and compensation.