Opportunities for research on numerical control machining

Abstract

Numerical control (NC) machining could be reinvigorated by adapting robotic software technology. Regrettably, pressures are mounting in industry to constrain robots to NC standards, and the academic community views NC as an obsolete, solved problem, with little remaining scholarly challenge. Grossman examines the current status of APT, an NC language, and proposes the merging of APT with a modern robotics language.