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.