This paper outlines a prototype automated inspection planning system for coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). This system consists of five functional modules: tolerance information input, accessibility analysis, clustering, inspection path generation and inspection process simulation. The theoretical and practical methodologies that are applied in the corresponding five functional modules are also outlined. An example demonstrates the general process for the application of the automated inspection planning system. The test result shows that the proposed theory and methods can be used for automatic generation of an inspection process plan for a CMM.
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