Ants Colony Optimisation of a Measuring Path of Prismatic Parts on a CMM

Abstract This paper presents optimisation of a measuring probe path in inspecting the prismatic parts on a CMM. The optimisation model is based on: (i) the mathematical model that establishes an initial collision-free path presented by a set of points, and (ii) the solution of Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) obtained with Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO). In order to solve TSP, an ACO algorithm that aims to find the shortest path of ant colony movement (i.e. the optimised path) is applied. Then, the optimised path is compared with the measuring path obtained with online programming on CMM ZEISS UMM500 and with the measuring path obtained in the CMM inspection module of Pro/ENGINEER ® software. The results of comparing the optimised path with the other two generated paths show that the optimised path is at least 20% shorter than the path obtained by on-line programming on CMM ZEISS UMM500, and at least 10% shorter than the path obtained by using the CMM module in Pro/ENGINEER ® .