An investigation on photopolymer solidification considering laser irradiation energy in micro-stereolithography

Micro-stereolithography technology has made it possible to fabricate freeform three-dimensional microstructures. This technology is based on conventional stereolithography, in which a UV laser beam irradiates the free surface of a UV-curable liquid photopolymer, causing it to solidify. In micro-stereolithography, a laser beam that is a few m in diameter is used to solidify a very small area of the photopolymer. Photopolymer solidification phenomena in response to variations in the scanning pitch of a focused laser beam were investigated experimentally in this study according to the irradiation energy. The effect of the layer thickness on the solidification width and depth was also examined. The study was conducted using both a relatively low laser power and high scanning speed (low irradiation energy method), and a relatively high laser power and low scanning speed (high irradiation energy method). The experimental results were compared with those obtained using a photopolymer solidification model. Based on these results, a new laser-scanning scheme is proposed according to the three-dimensional microstructure shape desired. Samples were successfully fabricated using both methods.This research was supported by the Center for Nanoscale Mechatronics and Manufacturing (CNMM; http://www.nanomecca.re.kr), which performs some of the 21st Centurys frontier R&D projects, and sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology under the contract project code M102KN010001–02K1401–00211.     

薄壁件选择性激光熔融的分区扫描路径规划

残余应力容易导致采用选择性激光熔融技术加工的薄壁件变形甚至开裂,为了减少残余应力并控制其分布,提出了一种基于中轴变换的分区扫描路径规划策略.首先对分层实体区域进行中轴变换,然后根据裁剪后的中轴将分层实体区域划分为主区域和连接区域,针对主区域和连接区域分别设计了正弦曲线形扫描路径和正三角网格式扫描路径,最后给出了一个典型...     

Heuristics-based infeasible path detection for dynamic test data generation

Automated test data generation plays an important part in reducing the cost and increasing the reliability of software testing. However, a challenging problem in path-oriented test data generation is the existence of infeasible program paths, where considerable effort may be wasted in trying to generate input data to traverse the paths. In this paper, we propose a heuristics-based approach to infeasible path detection for dynamic test data generation. Our approach is based on the observation that many infeasible program paths exhibit some common properties. Through realizing these properties in execution traces collected during the test data generation process, infeasible paths can be detected early with high accuracy. Our experiments show that the proposed approach efficiently detects most of the infeasible paths with an average precision of 96.02% and a recall of 100% of all the cases.     

基于粒子群算法的群体路径生成方法研究与实现

对群体行为进行模拟一直是计算机图形学方面的研究热点,如何表现出个体运动的独立性和群体运动的整体性是群体行为模拟的困难所在。首先对群体行为进行分析,然后将粒子群算法的群体智能性用于群体路径生成中,既使用了粒子群算法初始生成思想,又针对不同的群体行为进行了修改,从而产生一种新的能够快速完成群体路径生成的方法和手段。     

基路径覆盖测试用例自动生成方法研究

传统基路径覆盖测试用例生成方法通过程序图求出圈复杂度,然后再得出程序的一组基路径,最后分别针对基路径组中的每条路径求出相应的测试用例,不仅繁琐,而且忽视了代码的语义相关性,导致存在路径不可达问题,也就无法生成对应的测试用例.提出了一种新的方法,利用遗传算法动态运行程序,逐渐逼近被测程序的真实逻辑圈复杂度,直接生成满足基路径覆盖测试用例的最小集合,不存在路径不可达问题.实验结果表明,该算法能够有效地生成满足基路径覆盖的测试用例.     

自由曲面超声检测轨迹的实时生成算法

针对复杂曲面工件内部缺陷的超声检测,本文提出了一种检测轨迹的实时生成算法.该方法采用了B样条曲面实时插补方法,可实时生成扫查点,克服了现有方法存在的存储问题,并具有可现场设定采样间距等参数的特点.实验结果表明,所提出的方法是有效、可行的, 完全满足实际检测的需要.     

Interference detection for direct tool path generation from measured data points

One of the main issues of the reverse engineering (RE) is the duplication of an existing physical part whose geometric information is partially or completely unavailable in measured form. In some industrial applications, physical parts are duplicated using three-axis CNC machines and ball-end mills. Many researches studied the problem of direct tool path generation from measured data point. However, up to the present, it appears that there is no reported study on interference detection in paths generated directly from measured data points. Interference detection is a curial problem in direct tool path generation from measured data points. This paper discusses the problem of local and global interference detection for three-axis machining in RE and proposes algorithms for local and global interference detection. With these algorithms, the measured data points captured from a physical part are analyzed and classified according to the shapes of the part. The method has been tested with several industrial parts, and it is shown to be robust and efficient especially for the part with free-form surfaces.     

Tool path generation for clean-up machining by a curve-based approach

This paper presents a new efficient and robust tool-path generation method that employs a curve-based approach for clean-up machining. The clean-up machining discussed in this paper is pencil-cut and fillet-cut for a polyhedral model of the STL form with a ball-end mill. The pencil-cut and fillet-cut paths are obtained from the curve-based scanning tool paths on the xz, yz, and xy planes. The scanning tool path has exact sharp-concave points and bi-contact vectors, both of which are very useful to detect ‘pencil-points’, to trace the pencil-cut path, and to generate the fillet-cut path. In the paper, some illustrative examples are provided, and the characteristics of the proposed method are discussed.     

Tool path generation for a surface model with defects

A 3-axis tool path generation algorithm for free-form surface models including defects, such as gaps and overlaps is presented in this paper. To avoid the difficulty of computing a complete cutter location (CL)-surface, the proposed approach generates a tool path by slicing CL-elements instead of a complete CL-surface. A key feature of the proposed approach is that it reduces the number of CL-elements to be sliced by utilizing the correspondence information between CL-elements and cutter contact (CC)-elements. This feature significantly improves the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Empirical tests show that the proposed approach is robust to geometric defects of CAD models, gaps and overlaps, with a near O(n) time complexity, where n is the number of slicing planes.     

NC tool path generation for 5-axis machining of free formed surfaces

This paper presents a tool axis vector approach for machining sculptured surfaces. Such an approach is well suited for highly twisted, rolled, or bent surfaces. The tool paths are generated for a 5-axis milling machine. The proposed approach is based on tilt angle, cutting direction, and a vector normal to the cutting surface. Gouging is avoided by checking the interference between the cutting tool and the part surface. The algorithm also finds maximum path intervals that generate maximum admissible cusp height within the specified tolerance limits. Such an approach minimizes the tool path and machining time. The paper presents an example to illustrate the details of the algorithm.This research was accomplished by funding provided by the Korean Research Foundation under the Faculty Research Abroad Program and by the advice and support of the second author.     

Cartesian path generation of robot manipulators using continuous genetic algorithms

In this paper, the authors describe a novel technique based on continuous genetic algorithms (CGAs) to solve the path generation problem for robot manipulators. We consider the following scenario: given the desired Cartesian path of the end-effector of the manipulator in a free-of-obstacles workspace, off-line smooth geometric paths in the joint space of the manipulator are obtained. The inverse kinematics problem is formulated as an optimization problem based on the concept of the minimization of the accumulative path deviation and is then solved using CGAs where smooth curves are used for representing the required geometric paths in the joint space through out the evolution process. In general, CGA uses smooth operators and avoids sharp jumps in the parameter values. This novel approach possesses several distinct advantages: first, it can be applied to any general serial manipulator with positional degrees of freedom that might not have any derived closed-form solution for its inverse kinematics. Second, to the authors’ knowledge, it is the first singularity-free path generation algorithm that can be applied at the path update rate of the manipulator. Third, extremely high accuracy can be achieved along the generated path almost similar to analytical solutions, if available. Fourth, the proposed approach can be adopted to any general serial manipulator including both nonredundant and redundant systems. Fifth, when applied on parallel computers, the real time implementation is possible due to the implicit parallel nature of genetic algorithms. The generality and efficiency of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated through simulations that include 2R and 3R planar manipulators, PUMA manipulator, and a general 6R serial manipulator.     

基本路径测试用例自动生成的方法研究

基本路径测试是一个传统的代码分析与测试技术,被广泛地应用到复杂软件分析和大型软件逻辑覆盖测试活动中。传统的基本路径测试方法是采用选取满足规约的随机数作为测试用例,没有考虑规约自动提取和规约组合优化。提出一种基于编译技术的条件规约自动提取技术和规约组合优化自动生成测试用例技术,并给出相应的算法。实验结果证明了提出算法的有效性。     

考虑路网OD路径的交叉口群动态划分方法

交叉口群是关联性较强的若干交叉口的集合,是路网交通流协调控制的基本单元,其动态范围划分与路网协调控制效益直接相关。在对经典Whitson路段关联性模型进行改进的基础上,考虑路网上交通流OD路径分布建立了相邻交叉口之间的路径关联性模型;基于路段或路径关联性模型计算结果,应用层次聚类方法对信号控制交叉口群进行动态划分。最后对基于路段和路径关联性的交叉口群动态划分方法进行了仿真验证和对比分析。研究结果表明,考虑路网OD路径分布动态划分交叉口群可以减少对主要OD路径的分割,从而降低路网交通流的总停车延误和停车次数。     

Smooth tool path generation for 5-axis machining of triangular mesh surface with nonzero genus

NC machining of a nonzero genus triangular mesh surface is being more widely confronted than before in the manufacturing field. At present, due to the complexity of geometry computation related to tool path generation, only one path pattern of iso-planar type is adopted in real machining of such surface. To improve significantly 5-axis machining of the nonzero genus mesh surface, it is necessary to develop a more efficient and robust tool path generation method. In this paper, a new method of generating spiral or contour-parallel tool path is proposed, which is inspired by the cylindrical helix or circle which are a set of parallel lines on the rectangular region obtained by unwrapping the cylinder. According to this idea, the effective data structure and algorithm are first designed to transform a nonzero genus surface into a genus-0 surface such that the conformal map method can be used to build the bidirectional mapping between the genus-0 surface and the rectangular region. In this rectangular region, the issues of spiral or contour-parallel tool path generation fall into the category of simple straight path planning. Accordingly, the formula for calculating the parameter increment for the guide line is derived by the difference scheme on the mesh surface and an accuracy improvement method is proposed based on the edge curve interpolation for determining the cutter contact (CC) point. These guarantee that the generated tool path can meet nicely the machining requirement. To improve further the kinematic and dynamic performance of 5-axis machine tool, a method for optimizing tool orientation is also preliminarily investigated. Finally, the experiments are performed to demonstrate the proposed method and show that it can generate nicely the spiral tool path or contour-parallel tool path on the nonzero genus mesh surface and also can guarantee the smooth change of tool orientation.     

An accurate approach to roller path generation for robotic fibre placement of free-form surface composites

Due to their high stiffness and strength, composites are widely used in the aerospace industry. To manufacture composites, especially composites of free-form surface structure, process of robotic fibre placement (RFP) is widely used in industry. However, due to the complex geometry of the free-form surface, it is quite challenging to generate accurate roller paths for placing fibre on the surface for high composites quality. To address this problem, this work proposes an accurate roller path planning method using the differential geometry. The roller paths can ensure the specified small gaps and overlaps between two tows for high composite quality. This approach is applied to several examples, and their results verify the validity of this approach. It has great potential to be adopted in industry.     

A hybrid column generation with GRASP and path relinking for the network load balancing problem

In this paper, a hybrid meta-heuristic is proposed which combines the GRASP with path relinking method and Column Generation. The key idea of this method is to run a GRASP with path relinking search on a restricted search space, defined by Column Generation, instead of running the search on the complete search space of the problem. Moreover, column generation is used not only to compute the initial restricted search space but also to modify it during the whole algorithm. The proposed heuristic is used to solve the network load balancing problem: given a capacitated telecommunications network with single path routing and an estimated traffic demand matrix, the network load balancing problem is the determination of a routing path for each traffic commodity such that the network load balancing is optimized, i.e., the worst link load is minimized, among all such solutions, the second worst link load is minimized, and continuing in this way until all link loads are minimized. The computational results presented in this paper show that, for the network load balancing problem, the proposed heuristic is effective in obtaining better quality solutions in shorter running times.     

Repetitive interpolation: A robust algorithm for DTM generation from Aerial Laser Scanner Data in forested terrain

We present a new algorithm for digital terrain model (DTM) generation from an airborne laser scanning point cloud, called repetitive interpolation (REIN). It is especially applicable in steep, forested areas where other filtering algorithms typically have problems distinguishing between ground returns and off-ground points reflected in the vegetation. REIN can produce a DTM either in a vector grid or in a TIN data structure. REIN is applied after an initial filtering, which involves removal of all negative outliers and removal of many, but not necessarily all, off-ground points by some existing filtering algorithm. REIN makes use of the redundancy in the initially filtered point cloud (FPC) in order to mitigate the effect of the residual off-ground points. Multiple independent random samples are taken from the initial FPC. From each sample, ground elevation estimates are interpolated at individual DTM locations. Because the lower bounds of the distributions of the elevation estimates at each DTM location are almost insensitive to positive outliers, the true ground elevations can be approximated by adding the global mean offset to the lower bounds, which is estimated from the data. The random sampling makes REIN unique among the methods of filtering airborne laser data. While other filters behave deterministically, always generating a filter error in special situations, in REIN, because of its random aspects, these errors do not occur in each sample, and typically cancel out in the final computation of DTM elevations. Reduction of processing time by parallelization of REIN is possible. REIN was tested in a test area of 2 hectares, encompassing steep relief covered by mixed forest. An Optech ALTM 1020 lidar was used, with a flying height of 260-300 m above the ground, the beam divergence was 0.3 mrad, and the obtained point cloud density for the last returns was 8.5 m^− 2. A DTM grid was generated with 1 m horizontal resolution. The root mean square elevation error of the DTM ranged between ± 0.16 m and ± 0.37 m, depending on REIN sampling rate and number of samples taken, the lowest value achieved with 4 samples and using a 23% sampling rate. The paper also gives a short overview on existing filtering algorithms.     

A machining potential field approach to tool path generation for multi-axis sculptured surface machining

This paper presents a machining potential field (MPF) method to generate tool paths for multi-axis sculptured surface machining. A machining potential field is constructed by considering both the part geometry and the cutter geometry to represent the machining-oriented information on the part surface for machining planning. The largest feasible machining strip width and the optimal cutting direction at a surface point can be found on the constructed machining potential field. The tool paths can be generated by following the optimal cutting direction. Compared to the traditional iso-parametric and iso-planar path generation methods, the generated MPF multi-axis tool paths can achieve better surface finish with shorter machining time. Feasible cutter sizes and cutter orientations can also be determined by using the MPF method. The developed techniques can be used to automate the multi-axis tool path generation and to improve the machining efficiency of sculptured surface machining.