Abstract: Pocket milling is one of the fundamental machining processes in the manufacturing industry. A number of researchers has presented methods and techniques for optimal milling of a pocket. Most of the methods are based on work area approximation schemes using discrete elements such as squares. This paper presents interpolation algorithms for modeling of work area of a pocket. For decreasing the discrete squares, reduction algorithms are also presented. The algorithms are implemented in an optimization problem of pocket milling toolpath. Results indicate that while interpolation algorithms effectively model the design element, reduction algorithms greatly decrease the search space of the optimization methods leading to a decrease in convergence time.
Keywords: Discretization, interpolation, reduction, optimization.