A complete S-shape feed rate scheduling approach for NURBS interpolator

This paper presents a complete S-shape feed rate scheduling approach (CSFA) with confined jerk, acceleration and command feed rate for parametric tool path. For a Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) tool path, the critical points of the tool path where the radius of curvature reaches extreme values are found firstly. Then, the NURBS curve is split into several NURBS sub-curves or blocks by the critical points. A bidirectional scanning strategy with the limitations of chord error, normal/tangential acceleration/jerk and command feed rate is employed to make the feed rate at the junctions between different NURBS blocks continuous. To improve the efficiency of the feed rate scheduling, the NURBS block is classified into three types: short block, medium block and long block. The feed rate profile corresponding to each NURBS block is generated according to the start/end feed rates and the arc length of the block and the limitations of tangential acceleration/jerk. In addition, two compensation strategies are proposed to make the feed rate more continuous and the arc increment more precise. Once the feed rate profile is determined, a second-order Taylor׳s expansion interpolation method is applied to generate the position commands. Finally, experiments with two free-form NURBS curves are conducted to verify the applicability and accuracy of the proposed method.