Application of precedence constrained travelling salesman problem model for tool path optimization in CNC milling machines

In this study, a tool path optimization problem in Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling machines is considered to increase the operational efficiency rates of a company. In this context, tool path optimization problem of the company is formulated based on the precedence constrained travelling salesman problem (PCTSP), where the general form of the TSP model is extended by taking the precedence of the tool operations into account. The objective of the model is to minimize total idle and unnecessary times of the tools for internal operations. To solve the considered problem, a recent optimization algorithm, called Satin Bowerbird Optimizer (SBO), is used. Since the SBO is first introduced for the global optimization problems, the original version of the SBO is modified for the PCTSP with discretization and local search procedures. In computational studies, first, the performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on a well-known PCTSP benchmark problems by comparing the proposed algorithm against two recently proposed meta-heuristic approaches. Results of the comparisons show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other two competitive algorithms by finding better results. Then, the proposed algorithm is carried out to optimize the hole drilling processes of three different products produced by the company. For this case, with up to 4.05% improvement on the operational times was provided for the real-life problem of the company. As a consequence, it should be noted that the proposed solution approach for the tool path optimization is capable of providing considerable time reductions on the CNC internal operations for the company.