Collaborative virtual cutting verification and remote robot machining through the Internet

This paper presents the development of an international collaborative virtu al multi-axis cutting verification system and the framework of a remote dua l-robot machining system between the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Rese arch (CAMR), University of South Australia (UniSA), in Australia, and the M etal Forming Laboratory, (MFL) of the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) , in Taiwan, to establish computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) throug h the Internet. Multi-media tools such as text, audio, images and a videoco nference system are used to facilitate the communication between geographic ally distributed engineers. A remote control software is adopted in NCKU to remote control the dual-robot machining system in UniSA; it is also used t o facilitate collaborative discussion on multi-axis cutting verification be tween Taiwan and Australia. A preliminary network analysis and evaluation i s also achieved to serve as a reference prior to the execution of remote co ntrol. Several case studies for various connection types between campuses, universities and continents were tested through the Internet.