Robotic machining centers offer diverse advantages: large operation reach with large reorientation capability, and a low cost, to name a few. Many challenges have slowed down the adoption or sometimes inhibited the use of robots for machining tasks. This paper deals with the current usage and status of robots in machining, as well as the necessary modelling and identification for enabling optimization, process planning and process control. Recent research addressing deburring, milling, incremental forming, polishing or thin wall machining is presented. We discuss various processes in which robots need to deal with significant process forces while fulfilling their machining task.

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Being one of the most important problems in machining, chatter vibrations must be avoided as they result in high cutting forces, poor surface finish, and unacceptable part quality. Using stability diagrams is an effective method to predict chatter free cutting conditions. Although there have been numerous works in milling dynamics, the stability of five-axis ball-end milling has not been studied in detail. In this paper, the stability of the five-axis ball-end milling is analyzed using analytical (frequency domain), numerical (time-domain), and experimental methods. The models presented consider 3D dynamics of the five-axis ball-end milling process including the effects of all important process parameters such as the lead and tilt angles. Both single- and multi-frequency solutions are presented. Unlike other standard milling cases, it is observed that adding multi-frequency effects in the solution has marginal influence on the stability diagrams for five-axis ball-end milling operations due to effects of the ball-end milling geometry on the engagement region, thus, on the directional coefficients. The stability limits predicted by single- and multi-frequency methods are compared with time-domain simulations and experiments. Using the models and experimental results, the effects of the lead and tilt angles on the stability diagrams are also shown. The presented models can be used in analysis of five-axis ball-end milling dynamics as well as in the selection of the milling conditions for increased stability.