Development of universal environment for constructing 5-axis virtual machine tool based on modified D–H notation and OpenGL

For construction of a universal 5-axis virtual machine simulation system, a new methodology is proposed in this paper. The OpenGL library is used to render the virtual environment and to display all motions of the virtual machine tool. In order to achieve the universal construction procedures, the D–H notation is adopted. The user interfaces are developed to help users to select the configuration of machine tool. Once the configuration is decided, the motion directions between adjacent links are known and the kinematic parameters are described by D–H notation. Then the post-processor is derived by D–H notation. Finally, the motion control simulation of the virtual machine tool is executed by D–H transformation matrix. This new methodology can assist developers in constructing the simulation system for the universal 5-axis virtual machine tool efficiently and effectively.