Augmented Reality-assisted Intelligent Window for Cyber-Physical Machine Tools

Aiming to advance current machine tools to a higher level of intelligence and autonomy, this paper presents a new generation of machine tools, i.e. Cyber-Physical Machine Tool (CPMT), inspired by the recent advances in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). CPMT refers to a CPS-enabled machine tool that integrates physical machine tool and machining processes with computation and networking capabilities. Augmented Reality (AR) is used to enable intuitive and efficient human-machine interactions between humans and CPMT. An AR-assisted Intelligent Window for CPMT is proposed. The Intelligent Window is essentially an advanced Human-Machine Interface (HMI) which provides users with intuitive interactions with CPMT. The proposed Intelligent Window consists of four main functional modules, Real-time Control, AR-enabled Process Monitoring, AR-enabled Machining Simulation, and Process Optimization. An AR-assisted Intelligent Window for an EMCO Concept 105 milling machine is developed making use of a touch-screen computer. The advantages and potentials of CPS and AR in manufacturing are discussed based on the experience gained from the experiments.