Open architecture controller software for integration of machine tool monitoring

In contemporary machine control systems, the monitoring functions are developed and tested separately, requiring additional time and effort for their integration into a machine control system. Also, the software for most contemporary controllers is fixed and very application-dependent, so the system may not run correctly after such integration since the algorithms are time-sensitive. We show how to modularize machine tool control systems with object-oriented concepts. We define a set of software components and system services for reuse, present some system guidelines based on simulations and test analyses to help users implement controllers that satisfy real-time constraints. We present the integration of broken tool detection functionality into an existing three axis motion controller, and demonstrate that the integration requires minimal effort and skill, and that the hard real-time constraints for broken tool signal processing can be satisfied with our software architecture.