Robotic CAM system available for both CL data and NC data

This chapter describes the development of a robotic CAM system for an articulated industrial robot from the viewpoint of robotic servo controller. It is defined here that the CAM system includes an important function that allows an industrial robot to move along not only numerical control data (NC data) but also cutter location data (CL data) consisting of position and orientation components. A reverse postprocessor is proposed for the robotic CAM system to online generate CL data from the NC data generated for a five-axis NC machine tool with a tilting head, and the transformation accuracy about orientation components in CL data is briefly evaluated. The developed CAM system has a high applicability to other industrial robots with an open architecture controller whose servo system is technically opened to end-users, and also works as a straightforward interface between a general CAD/CAM system and an industrial robot. The basic design of the robotic CAM system and the experimental result are presented, in which an industrial robot can move based on not only CL data but also NC data without any teaching.