Interactive virtual machining system using informative data structure and on-site machine tool status

Virtual machining systems that are adaptive and responsive towards real machining environment are crucial to leverage a deep understanding of the underlying machining operations. It must retain radical behavior in order to enhance process planning and machining performance, in response to ever-changing manufacturing activities. Therefore, the study aims to develop an interactive virtual machining system that is responsive to on-site machine tool condition utilizing STEP-NC as the data structure. Signals from sensors are acquired, processed and converted into meaningful values where they were then incorporated in the system enabling tool-path simulation in a realistic environment. The system platform was constructed using C# programming software, EXPRESS for constructing the data structure, and LABWindows for signal processing. The tested capabilities of the system functions showed that the up-to-date information obtained, truly supports the inter-working concept in a virtual-real systems interaction which leads to reduction of the total production time.