Timing a machine tool using an accelerometer

A system comprising:

• a machine tool including:
• a moving component configured to be controlled by a processing circuitry;
• and
• the processing circuitry including:
• one or more processors, and
• one or more storage units storing first instructions that are configured to cause the processing circuitry to:
• select a movement path along which the moving component is to be moved, the movement path being selected from a set of predefined movement paths;
• either before or after moving the moving component along the movement path, cause the moving component to make a first predefined movement;
• before moving the moving component along the movement path, cause the moving component to make a second predefined movement;
• and
• after finishing moving the moving component along the movement path, cause the moving component to make a third predefined movement;
• and
• a computing device external to the machine tool including:
• one or more accelerometers, and
• one or more storage units storing second instructions that are configured to cause the computing device to:
• record, using the one or more accelerometers, movement data resulting from both (a) the movement component making the first predefined movement, the second predefined movement, and the third predefined movement, and (b) the movement component being moved along the movement path;
• analyze the movement data by (a) finding a waveform in the movement data corresponding to the second predefined movement to identify a start point in time at which the moving component started moving along the movement path, (b) finding a waveform in the movement data corresponding to the third predefined movement to identify a finish point in time at which the moving component finished moving along the movement path, and (c) finding a waveform in the movement data corresponding to the first predefined movement to identify which one of the predefined movement paths in the set was selected as the movement path for the moving component;
• calculate timing information for movement of the moving component along the movement path based on the identified start point, the identified finish point, and the identified one of the predefined movement paths in the set of predefined movement paths;
• and
• determine performance limits of the machine tool based on the timing information for setting parameters of the machine tool used in subsequent generation of cutting paths for the machine tool.

A tangible non-transitory storage medium encoding instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• selecting a movement path along which a moving component, associated with a machine tool, is to be moved, the movement path being selected from a set of predefined movement paths;
• either before or after moving the moving component along the movement path, causing the moving component to make a first predefined movement;
• before moving the moving component along the movement path, causing the moving component to make a second predefined movement;
• causing the moving component to be moved along the movement path;
• after finishing moving the moving component along the movement path, causing the moving component to make a third predefined movement;
• recording, using a computing device including one or more accelerometers, movement data resulting from both (a) the movement component making the first predefined movement, the second predefined movement, and the third predefined movement, and (b) the movement component being moved along the movement path;
• analyzing the movement data by (a) finding a waveform in the movement data corresponding to the second predefined movement to identify a start point in time at which the moving component started moving along the movement path, (b) finding a waveform in the movement data corresponding to the third predefined movement to identify a finish point in time at which the moving component finished moving along the movement path, and (c) finding a waveform in the movement data corresponding to the first predefined movement to identify which one of the predefined movement paths in the set was selected as the movement path for the moving component;
• calculating timing information for movement of the moving component along the movement path based on the identified start point, the identified finish point, and the identified one of the predefined movement paths in the set of predefined movement paths;
• and
• determining performance limits of the machine tool based on the timing information for setting parameters of the machine tool used in subsequent generation of cutting paths for the machine tool.