A new fuzzy-fractal approach for surface quality control in intelligent manufacturing of materials

Abstract

We describe a general method to automate quality control in the manufacturing of materials using a fuzzy-fractal approach. We also show how to implement this method in an intelligent system to achieve automated quality control in practice. Engineers deal with surfaces and surface properties in a wide variety of contexts. In manufacturing, the goal is to produce a surface with specific physical or chemical properties. The concept of the fractal dimension can be used to classify a complex geometrical object. In this case, we use the fractal dimension to characterize surface roughness of materials for manufacturing applications. On the other hand, we use fuzzy logic techniques to simulate the expert evaluation/decision process to obtain the quality of manufactured materials. Quality evaluation is simulated in an intelligent system using as input the information about material roughness and porosity (fractal dimension), and then by applying a set of fuzzy rules to decide, on the degree of quality of the production.