The Application of Automated Planning to Machine Tool Calibration

Engineering companies working with machine tools will often
be required to calibrate those machines to international
standards. The calibration process requires various errors in
the machine to be measured by a skilled expert. In addition to
conducting the tests, the engineer must also plan the order in
which the tests should take place, and also which instruments
should be used to perform each test. It is critical to find as
short a calibration plan as possible so that the machine is not
out of service for too long.
In this work, automated planning is applied to the problem of
generating machine tool calibration plans. Given a description
of a machine, and its various axes, we produce a calibration
plan that minimises the time taken to measure all of the
errors of a machine. We also consider the case when there
is not enough time to test all errors of the machine, and the
calibration plan must maximise the importance of the set of
errors tested in the limited time available.