2011 年 77 巻 4 号 p. 411-416
This study deals with the design method of automatic discharge gap controller (ADGC) installed on a microrobot which can create long, complicated curved holes by means of electrical discharge machining (EDM). The microrobot has to make a curved hole by both performing stable EDM and moving along a curved trajectory in a workpiece. To realize the stable EDM, the microrobot must be equipped with a function in which its electrode is always kept in an appropriate position autonomously and automatically to maintain suitable discharge gap. The function is accomplished by ADGC. It was proven that ADGC has the ability of achieving the function. However, a design method of ADGC is not established since the relationship between the structures of ADGC, the movement of ADGC, and EDM conditions is not enough revealed. As a first step to solve this problem, this study proposes the ADGC design method based on a simple mathematical model of ADGC and develops a new measurement method to evaluate the performance of ADGC doing EDM. The results obtained in the verification experiments using the measurement method show that the ADGC design method proposed is effective.
