The Cutter Envelope Surface Calculation of Multi-Axis NC Machining

The definition of broad sense normal vector is presented and the formula of end cutter envelope surface is given based on it.In order to express envelope surface,the discrete error control method is given.The envelope surface algorithm presented in this paper can be extended to calculate the moving envelope surface of general convex object.This algorithm may be applied to the verification of kinematic mechanism and path planning of robots.