We consider the 2.5D pocket machining (milling) process for
this work. Numerous research works have been published in the
area of toolpath planning for 2.5D pocket machining that target
various productivity targets such as improving cutting efficiency,
minimizing air-time, improving surface quality, etc. [8]. However,
very rarely, if at all, a toolpath planning strategy or method is proposed
that specifically minimizes energy consumed in the process.
In many cases, energy consumption is loosely tied to the machining
time while implicitly assuming that optimizing machining time
must resultin optimized energy usage. However, we found thatthis
is strictly not the case as toolpaths with the same machining time
for the same component may still consume different amount of
energy depending on the geometry of the path [13]. In this work,
we build further on this notion to demonstrate the effect of toolpath
geometry on the energy consumed in the 2.5D pocket machining
process.