Collaborative virtual cutting verification and remote robot machining through the Internet

This paper presents the development of an international collaborative virtual multi-axis cutting verification system and the framework of a remote dual-robot machining system between the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Research (CAMR), University of South Australia (UniSA), in Australia, and the Metal Forming Laboratory, (MFL) of the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in Taiwan, to establish computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) through the Internet. Multi-media tools such as text, audio, images and a videoconference system are used to facilitate the communication between geographically distributed engineers. A remote control software is adopted in NCKU to remote control the dual-robot machining system in UniSA; it is also used to facilitate collaborative discussion on multi-axis cutting verification between Taiwan and Australia. A preliminary network analysis and evaluation is also achieved to serve as a reference prior to the execution of remote control. Several case studies for various connection types between campuses, universities and continents were tested through the Internet.