Development of a Grinding Robot System for the Engine Cylinder Liner's Oil Groove

An engine for marine propulsion and power generation consists of several cylinder liner-piston sets. And the oil groove is on the cylinder liner inside wall for the lubrication between a piston and cylinder. The machining process of oil groove has been carried by manual work so far, because of the diversity of the shape. Recently, we developed an automatic grinding robot system for oil groove machining of engine cylinder liners. It can covers various types of oil grooves and adjust its position by itself. The grinding robot system consists of a robot, a machining tool head, sensors and a control system. The robot automatically recognizes the cylinder liner's inside configuration by using a laser displacement sensor and a vision sensor after the cylinder liner is placed on a set-up equipment.