A generalisable tool path planning strategy for free-form sheet metal stamping through deep reinforcement and supervised learning
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Liu, Shiming
Shi, Zhusheng
Lin, Jianguo
Yu, Hui
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Due to the high cost of specially customised presses and dies and the advance of machine learning technology, there is some emerging research attempting free-form sheet metal stamping processes which use several common tools to produce products of various shapes. However, tool path planning strategies for the free forming process, such as reinforcement learning technique, derived from previous path planning experience are not generalisable for an arbitrary new sheet metal workpiece. Thus, in this paper, a generalisable tool path planning strategy is proposed for the first time to realise the tool path prediction for an arbitrary sheet metal part in 2-D space with no metal forming knowledge in prior, through deep reinforcement (implemented with 2 heuristics) and supervised learning technologies. Conferred by deep learning, the tool path planning process is corroborated to have self-learning characteristics. This method has been instantiated and verified by a successful application to a case study, of which the workpiece shape deformed by the predicted tool path has been compared with its target shape. The proposed method significantly improves the generalisation of tool path planning of free-form sheet metal stamping process, compared to strategies using pure reinforcement learning technologies. The successful instantiation of this method also implies the potential of the development of intelligent free-form sheet metal stamping process.
Date Issued
2025-04-01
Date Acceptance
2024-03-13
Citation
Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 2025, 36 (4), pp.2601-2627
ISSN
0956-5515
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Start Page
2601
End Page
2627
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing
Volume
36
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10845-024-02371-w
Subjects
Deep learning
Deep reinforcement learning
Deep supervised learning
Sheet metal forming
Intelligent manufacturing
Tool path planning
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-04-22