Principal Face-based Recognition Approach for Machining Features of Aircraft Integral Panels

摘要

Feature recognition aims at extracting manufacturing features with geometrical information from solid model and is considered to be an efficient way of changing the interactive NC machining programming mode.Existing recognition methods have some disadvantages in practical applications.They can essentially handle prismatic components with regular shapes and are difficult to recognize the intersecting features and curved surfaces.Besides,the robustness of them is not strong enough.A new feature recognition approach is proposed based on the analysis of aircraft integral panels’ geometry and machining characteristics.In this approach,the aircraft integral panel is divided into a number of local machining domains.The machining domains are extracted and recognized first by finding the principal face of machining domain and extracting the sides around the principal face.Then the machining domains are divided into various features in terms of the face type.The main sections of the proposed method are presented including the definition,classification and structure of machining domain,the relationship between machining domain and principal face loop,the rules of machining domains recognition,and the algorithm of machining feature recognition.In addition,a robotic feature recognition module is developed for aircraft integral panels and tested with several panels.Test results show that the strategy presented is robust and valid.Features extracted can be post processed and linked to various downstream applications.The approach is able to solve the difficulties in recognizing the aircraft integral panel’s features and automatic obtaining the machining zone in NC programming,and can be used to further develop the automatic programming of NC machining.