Ant Colony Optimization for Tool Path Integration in Spray Forming Processes

Spray forming is a new manufacturing process. The automated tool planning for this process is a challenging problem, especially for geometry-complicated parts consisting of multiple freeform surfaces. We have developed a tool path planning system which can automatically generate tool plants. This paper discusses the path integration problem, i.e, how to connect the paths from different surface patches so that the overall path length is minimized. An Ant Colony Optimization (ACO)-based path integration algorihm is developed to solve this problem. Experimental tests are carried out on sample data as well as real world automotive body parts. The results proved to be better (by up to 10%) compared with those of a Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based solution we developed before.