Cutter collision analysis of five-axis machining based on visibility cone theory

For the collision problem between cutter and workpiece in CNC machining of sculpture surfaces, a method was proposed for checking cutter collision based on visibility cone theory. The visibility cone algorithm was derived with point visibility, and a visibility cone model on any sample point was established. Boolean operation of cutter axis vector and visibility cone was used to judge the collision of cutter and workpiece, and the minimum rotation angle of cutter axis to be rotated was calculated. Whether the new cutter axis was in the feasible cutter orientations was checked out. Through applying this method to the integral impeller machining, the collision detection problem in CNC machining was solved to provide efficient method of tool-path planning.