A Virtual CMM Inspection Tool for Capturing Planning Strategies

Abstract

One of the most challenging tasks throughout the development and manufacturing of a product is the capturing and formalization of engineering knowledge and expertise. In the past, many researchers have successfully proposed different techniques for capturing knowledge during the design, process and assembly planning of a product. However, few efforts have focused on applying knowledge capture to the task of product verification for Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) inspection; most of these are manual, obtrusive for the user and time consuming since the main sources of knowledge come from documentation such as handbooks, guides or interview transcripts. This paper describes a tool for the automated logging of a planner’s actions while carrying out an inspection planning task in a virtual CMM measurement environment. The tool involves a combination of 3D motion tracking and a post-processor to decipher the context strategy in the form of an inspection plan. Various representations of a captured strategy will benefit CMM operators by providing them a tool for: understanding planning strategies, better training methods for inexperienced users and producing more efficient part programs in a shorter time.