Abstract
The study deals with the automation of polishing process for free-form surfaces by means of an industrial robot. In general, the polishing process has been performed by handwork of skilled workers. Since the polishing environment is extremely inferior and the polishing process is time-consuming and tedious work, the automation of polishing process is strongly desired. In the study, the polishing path generation is devised to improve the surface quality. Thus, the relationship between the surface curvature of workpiece and the contact length of polishing tool is investigated by experiments, which results in the new polishing path generation method. As a result, it is found that the new polishing path generation method is effective for polishing automation by robots.
