Using Graphic Hardware to Accelerate Pocketing Tool-Path Generation

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new approach to accelerate the pocketing tool-path generation by using graphic hardware (graphic processing units, GPU). The intersections among tool-path elements can be eliminated with higher efficiency from GPU-based Voronoi diagrams. According to our experimental results, the GPU-based computation speed was seven to eight times faster than that of CPU-based computation. In addition, the difference of tool-path geometry between the CPU-based and GPU-based methods was insignificant. Therefore, the GPU-method can be efficiently used to accelerate the computation while the precision is assured for the tool-path generation in pocketing machining.