ELSEVIER

Computers

in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

A review of machine vision sensors for tool condition monitoring

S. Kurada

*, C.

Bradley

D(?partment of Mechanical Engineering, Uniuersity of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 3P6
Received 4 January

1994; revised 27 August 1996; accepted 27 August 1996

Abstract

Tool condition monitoring has gained considerable importance in the manufacturing industry over the preceding two
decades, as it significantly influences the process economy and the machined part quality. Recent advances in the field of
image processing technology have led to the development of various in-cycle vision sensors that can provide a direct and
indirect estimate of the tool condition. These sensors are characterised by their measurement flexibility, high spatial
resolution and good accuracy. This paper provides a review of the basic principle, the instrumentation and the various
processing schemes involved in the development
of these sensors. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.
Keywords:

Machine

vision; Manufacturing

information;

Cutting tool monitoring;

1. Introduction
The concept of tool condition monitoring has
gained considerable importance in the manufacturing
industry. This is mainly attributed to the transfonnation of the manufacturing
environment
from manually operated production machines to CNC machine
tools and the highly automated CNC machining centres. For modem machine tools, 20% of the downtime is attributed to tool failure, resulting in reduced
productivity and economic losses. A reliable monitoring system could prevent these problems and allow optimum utilisation of the tool life, which is
highly desirable.
The current trend is for CNC machine tools to be
tended by operators, who are not fully equipped with
the blend of training and experience necessary to
gauge a tools wear. A skilled machinist will pay
* Corresponding

author.

Flank wear

close attention to cutting tool performance particularly when a new combination of tool, material and
part program parameters are being tried. However,
the recent trend towards unsupervised
machining
centres equipped with open architecture controllers
has changed the manufacturing
environment significantly. In this environment,
operators will not be
available to make tool changing decisions. Also, the
pre-planned tool replacement strategies are no longer
appropriate as the machining conditions vary considerably. Thus, there is a great demand for monitoring
systems that ensure optimum performance
of the
unsupervised machining centres.
In addition to the complexity of the metal cutting
operation, the various combinations of the operating
conditions, tooling and the materials, increases the
probability of the machine tool breakdown. Although
several models [l-5] have been developed to predict
cutting tool life, none of these are universally successful due to the complex nature of the machining

0166-3615/97/$17.00
0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII SO166-3615(96)00075-9

56

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/

Computers in Industrv 34 (I997) 55-72

process. Various studies [6,7] have pointed out the

importance of sensing technology in the development of flexible manufacturing systems.
Sensors play a vital role in the acquisition of
information relating to the machine, process and part
to optimise the machine tool performance.
In the
case of unsupervised machining centres, it has been
demonstrated that the addition of sensor capabilities
can dramatically
reduce down time and improve
product quality [8]. The deployment of these sensors
for tool condition monitoring can be categorised as
either in-process or in-cycle. An in-process sensor
monitors the tool condition during the machining
operation, whereas an in-cycle sensor examines the
tool periodically,
for example between machining
blocks or during part changeovers.
Over the years, a number of sensors have been
developed, and most of these have been limited for
use in a laboratory environment.
However, recent
advances in the field of image processing technology
have led to the development
of various in-cycle
vision sensors that can be used to obtain information
about the cutting tool as well as the machined part.
The relative speed and absence of any physical
contact with the tool makes on-line monitoring feasible, provided the tool is not in permanent contact
with the workpiece. As vision and artificial intelligence (AI) are natural partners, integration of the
two technologies is also possible, to provide a better
understanding of the tool wear problem. The potential of these techniques for tool condition monitoring
is unlimited and hence will be explored in this
review paper.
Various techniques for tool wear monitoring were
reviewed by Shiraishi [9- 111, Lister and Barrow [ 121
and Martin et al. [ 131. A survey of the general
techniques used for surface roughness measurement
are reviewed by Vorburger and Teague [14] and
Thomas [15]. The main thrust of this review paper is
to include the development
of vision sensors for
cutting tool and the workpiece assessment. Accordingly, the paper is organised as follows: First, an
introduction to the background information in tool
condition monitoring is presented. Next, a description of the machine vision components is presented,
followed by a review of the literature in cutting tool
and workpiece quality inspection. Sensor fusion is
discussed next followed by the concluding remarks.

2. Tool condition monitoring

- The background

The life of a cutting tool can be brought to an end

either due to gradual wear leading to tool failure or
premature edge failure due to chipping. As the cutting tool approaches the end of its life, the degradation in surface quality of the machined workpiece is
quite evident. Characterisation
of the surface topography of a machined workpiece can act as a fingerprint of the machining process and, more specifically, the condition of the cutting tool. This is attributed to the change in the textural characteristics
of the machined workpiece becoming apparent as the
cutting tool approaches the end of its life. Hence, the
tool wear sensors can detect the signal either directly
from the tool or indirectly from the workpiece. The
following sections describe the direct and indirect
aspects of tool condition monitoring.
2.1. Tool life criteria
There are two predominant wear mechanisms that
limit a tools useful life; flank wear and crater wear.
Flank wear occurs on the relief face of the tool and
is mainly attributed to the rubbing action of the tool
on the machined surface and the high temperatures
developed. Crater wear occurs on the rake face of the
tool and changes the chip-tool interface, thus affecting the cutting process. The most significant factors
influencing crater wear are temperature at the toolchip interface and the chemical affinity between the
tool and workpiece materials [16].
Chipping is the term used to describe the breaking
away of a small piece from the cutting edge of the
tool. Unlike wear, which is a gradual process, chipping results in a sudden loss of tool material and
shape, and has detrimental
effect on the surface
finish. It is mainly attributed to the mechanical shock
due to interrupted cutting and thermal fatigue.
A typical flank wear profile is divided into three
regions (see Fig. 1):
Zone C - Nose or trailing groove, which forms
near the relief face and contributes significantly
to surface roughness.
Zone B - A plateau consisting of uniform wear
land.
Zone A - Leading edge groove, which marks the
outer end of the wear land.

S. Kuraah, C. Bradley / Computers in Industry 34 f 1997) 55-72

57

Direct

Fig. 1. Illustration

of the form of a typical flank wear pattern.

According to Imemational Standards Organisation

(ISO), tool life criteria are concerned only with the
leading edge groove in zone A. If the profile is
uniform, the tool can be used unless the average
value VB is greater than 0.3 mm. For uneven wear,
maximum wear land width (VBmax) should be less
than 0.6 mm. A tylpical crater wear profile is shown
in Fig. 2. The extent of cratering is specified by the
maximum depth of the crater from the original rake
face K,. In some cases, its size is specified by K,
and K,.
2.2. Tool wear sen,pors
The requirements
for tool wear sensors to be
successful in a machining environment include:
good correlation between the sensor signal and
the tool condition;
the response should be fast enough for feedback
control;
simple in design and rugged in construction;
non-contact, accurate and reliable;
no interference with the machining process.
Over the years, a number of sensing techniques
have been developed. Most of these systems have
been limited to the clean room environment,
and
only a few have emerged as viable tools for in-process measurement.
Generally, these techniques are

Fig. 2. Illustration

Indirect

of the form of a typical crater wear pattern.

Fig. 3. Classification
niques.

of previously

tested tool wear sensing tech-

classified into two categories

sensors and indirect senors.

(see Fig.

3): direct

2.2.1. Direct sensors

The measurement of the actual dimensions of the
worn area on the tool and/or direct determination of
the condition of the tools cutting edge. These methods have the advantage of providing a direct and
accurate assessment of the tools state but are limited
to in-cycle deployment.
The most common direct
sensing techniques are:
Proximity sensors. Proximity sensors estimate tool
wear by measuring the change in the distance between the tools edge and the workpiece [17,18].
This distance can be measured by electric feeler
micrometers and pneumatic touch probes. The measurement is affected by the thermal expansion of the
tool, deflection or vibration of the workpiece and the
deflection the cutting tool due to the cutting force.
Radioactive sensors. Radioactive sensors [ 19,201
have been used for direct measurement of tool wear.
A small amount of radioactive material is implanted
on the flank face of the cutting tool. During the
cutting process, worn tool material is transferred to
the chips. By monitoring the amount of radioactive
material deposited on the chips, tool wear can be
assessed. The need for collecting chips on-line and
the hazardous nature of radioactive material limits
this technique for laboratory environment.
Vision sensors. The direct application of the vision sensor for measurement of tool wear utilises the
cutting tool itself. In general, these sensors depend
on the higher reflective properties of the wear land,

58

S.

compared to the unworn surface, to derive various

morphological parameters that characterise tool wear.
The majority of the research work has pursued only
the measurement
of flank wear whereas few researchers have attempted to measure both flank and
crater wear. Flank wear regions can be imaged with
a CCD camera, however, crater wear determination
requires the projection of a structured light pattern
onto the tool, in order to derive depth information
from within the crater. In structured light sensing,
the distortion of parallel lines of laser light gives a
measure of crater depth. Due to the hostility of the
cutting environment (presence of lubricant, built-upedge or metal deposits on the cutting tool), current
vision sensors can only be used between cutting
cycles.
2.2.2. Indirect sensors
This approach measures a parameter that can be
correlated with tool condition. Although these parameters can be measured, they are often influenced
by non-wear phenomena
leading to an erroneous
prediction of tool life. Indirect tool wear sensors can
generally be deployed in-process. The most commonly used indirect sensing techniques are:
Cutting force. Cutting force signals have been
extensively used for condition monitoring due to the
availability
of sensor technology 121-231. A dynamometer is mounted on a tool holder to monitor
the cutting force in 1 or 2 orthogonal directions. The
force sensor signal indicates the increase in the
cutting force required as a progressively wearing tool
is forced through the material. Therefore, signal
analysis has to be performed on the force data in
order to determine when the tool has to be replaced.
This signal analysis problem is complicated by parameters, other than tool wear, affecting the cutting
force. For example, material properties (density,
hardness,
ductility),
cutting tool geometry,
chip
build-up on tool edge, etc. This makes it difficult to
develop a robust and reliable force sensor that can
predict tool wear.
Vibration. Machining with a worn tool increases
the fluctuation of forces on the cutting tool. This is
attributed to the friction between the flank face of
the cutting tool and the workpiece, and also the
internal fractures of the tool. Due to these force
fluctuations, vibrations occur in the system. There-

fore, by monitoring the level of vibration, tool wear

can be assessed 124,251. The sensing device consists
of a piezo-electric accelerometer attached to the upper surface of the cutting tool, as close as possible to
the cutting edge. The output of the sensor is compared to a reference threshold, and if the threshold is
exceeded repeatedly, failure is predicted. If the sensor is mounted close to the cutting location, the
variability of the signal increases with the progression of the cutting process. Also, the amplitude of
the signal decreases with an increase in the distance
between the sensor and the cutting edge.
Acoustic emission. Acoustic emission (AE) is defined as the transient elastic energy spontaneously
released in materials undergoing deformation, fracture or both [26]. The emission signal is usually
detected by a contacting piezo-electric
transducer
mounted on the machine tool. The acoustic signal
information must be carefully analysed to separate
the cutting signal from other signals present in the
spectrum. This requires, in addition, to the sensor,
signal amplifiers, filters and processing electronics.
Furthermore, sensor location on the machine tool is
problematic; different machine tools have different
characteristics that need to be considered when processing the AE data.
The sensors described above are not mutually
exclusive; by adopting techniques from the AI community and employing multiple sensors, some of the
problems described above have been minimised.
Fildes [27] provides an overview of the sensor fusion
techniques available to monitor at the part, tool, and
machine level. Sensor fusion is a philosophy whereby
several data modes, indirectly measuring the same
phenomenon,
are combined to increase prediction
reliability. Rangwala and Domfeld [28] applied neural network techniques to the multi-sensor tool wear
monitoring problem. Neural networks allow an automatic learning capability so that some of the machine dependency problems can be eliminated. Neural networks also permit data from multiple sensors
to be combined in order to use the maximum amount
of information
in a control decision.
As more
sensor-based
data is utilised, the certainty of the
derived tool wear parameters increases. In a similar
manner, fuzzy systems have also been applied to the
multi-sensor monitoring problem [29]. Du et al. 1301
reviewed these modes of machine monitoring and

59

S. Kurada, C. Bradley / Computers in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

the use of AI techniques (such as neural networks

and fuzzy logic) to achieve multi-sensor
fusion.
Clearly, by monitoring,
and hence controlling, the
best operating state of a machine tool maintains the
parts produced by that machine in optimum quality
condition.
U

2.3. Surface texture

The accurate characterisation
of surface texture
involves the definition of parameters that quantify
the surface topographical or geometrical features. It
includes several features present in a parts surface
profile; roughness, waviness, lay and flaws. Roughness is comprised of the randomly distributed surface
irregularities,
extending over the whole area, on a
microscopic
scale. It is mainly attributed to the
intrinsic action of ,the machining process. Waviness,
characterised by height variations at a given spatial
frequency, is the more widely spaced component of
surface texture. It results from such factors as machine or work deflections, vibrations, and tool chatter. The lay of a surface is the direction of the
predominant
surface pattern and is usually determined by the machining method used. Flaws are
unintentional
irregularities, which occur at one location or at relatively infrequent intervals on the surface, arising from accidental damage either during or
after the surface generation. The parameters that are
commonly used to characterise surface texture include:

Flank face

Fig. 4. Schematic
sensing system.

diagram

of a computer

vision-based

tool wear

clean room. All the national and international

standards are defined in terms of the measurements
produced by this instrument. However, due to the
direct physical contact required to produce the surface profile, it damages the surface (particularly soft
materials). Also, line sampling of the data limits its
repeatability and ability to accurately describe the
surface characteristics.

3. Machine vision components

A vision-based tool condition monitoring system
consists of the major components discussed below (a
schematic diagram is shown in Fig. 4).
3.1. Illumination

- Spatial parameters, derived directly from the surface profile, are commonly used to characterise
textural properties of various machined surfaces.
Amplitude parameters,
R, (centre-line
average)
and R, (RMS average), are the most widely used
and are essentially the same.
- Frequency parameters, derived by decomposing
the surface profile into a number of periodic
components of different wavelengths and amplitudes, are used to reveal more information about
the machining process. The decomposition procedure is commonly carried out by using a discrete
Fourier transformation.
The stylus profilometer has traditionally been used
for surface roughness measurement in an industrial

One of the most important parts of the hardware

configuration is the illumination. The selection of an
appropriate light source is dependent on the stand-off
distances required, amount of light and the environmental issues involved [31]. For cutting tool wear
monitoring, the main requirement of the system is to
provide adequate contrast between the worn region
and the background. The intensity and the angle of
the illumination source should be adjusted to accentuate the tool region of interest. The light sources
that are commonly used for tool condition monitoring are incandescent lamps and lasers.
In addition to the selection of an appropriate light
source, consideration must also be given to the technique which will give the optimum results. The three

S. Kurada, C. Bradley / Computers in Industry 34 (I 997) 55-72

60

techniques that have been used extensively for various machine vision applications include [31]:
Front lighting, which involves direct illumination
of the object, has been widely used in tool wear
and surface roughness measurement.
Buck lighting provides excellent contrast, but limited to silhouette information.
Structured lighting refers to the sources of illumination, where the geometric shape of the projected light pattern is controlled by some means.
Structured light sensing has been used to estimate
the depth of the crater wear region.
3.2. Cameras
Two types of video cameras have been used for
tool condition monitoring. The earlier studies employed vidicon cameras, which consist of a photosensitive surface present inside a vacuum tube. When
an electron beam scans this surface, analogue voltage
proportional to the scene brightness (at that point in
the image) is produced. These cameras suffer from
geometric distortions and image drift.
The emergence of cost effective and improved
solid state technology over the past decade, has made
CCD sensors readily available for various machine
vision applications. The basic structure of the CCD
is that of an analogue shift register consisting of a
series of closely spaced capacitors. Typical sensors
offer a pixel resolution of 768 X 493 with imaging
rates of 30 images/set.
High resolution cameras
offer sensor sizes up to 2048 X 2048 pixels, but at
lower temporal resolution and at a very high cost.
High speed cameras, with imaging rates of up to
1000 images/set,
are limited by a reduced spatial
resolution and high cost. The CCD cameras have a
standard C-mount, which is compatible with a wide
variety of lenses.

Lri

Input DigitalImage

+
Breakage

Check
forTool Breakage
No

Fig. 5. Typical
parameters.

Breakage

sequence

equipped with
processing.

real

for determining

time

low

cutting tool flank wear

level

image

pre-

3.4. Image analysis

The processing methodologies employed in evaluating the images for direct or indirect assessment of
the tool condition are discussed in the following
sections.

3.3. Image digitisation

3.4.1. Tool wear

In principle, the steps involved in determining the
cutting tool condition are shown in Fig. 5. During
the monitoring process, the tool is positioned in front
of the camera and can focus on its flank or crater
face. A magnified image of the cutting tool clearly
shows the three distinct textural regions (see Fig. 6):

Image digitisation converts an infinitely variable

value (analogue signal) to an integer from 1 to N,
where N represents degree of Gray scale recognised
by the system. A wide range of frame grabbers are
available for the A/D conversion
of a standard
video signal. Some of the recent frame grabbers are

* the worn region, which is characterised

by a
non-uniform texture;
. the background, comprising of the tool holder and
the platform, is uniform and smoothly textured;
* the unworn region, which is distinguished by a
uniform but coarser texture than the background.

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/ Computers in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

Fig. 6. Photograph

of a typical flank wear pattern on an insert.

The tool wear image can be affected by uneven

lighting or random bright spots due to the specular
reflections off asperities on the tool surface. Positioning of the illumination sources relative to the tool is
crucial in minimising
these effects, however, they
cannot be totally eliminated. Therefore, the image
has to be enhanced prior to the application of the
segmentation operators. This involves either contrast
stretching or a smoothing
algorithm. A contrast
stretching algorithm is comprised of a linear scaling
transformation
that normalises the actual intensity
values so that the:y are distributed over a wider
intensity range. A smoothing algorithm is primarily
used to remove the spurious effects present in the
image. It involves either a lowpass filtering approach
or cascaded median filtering.
A key step in evaluating flank wear is the delineation of the wear region pixels from the remainder
of the image, which is composed of the background
and the unworn tool region. Termed segmentation, a
simple approach involves global thresholding of the
image based on the Gray level histogram. Ideally,
the bright worn region in a dark background yields a
bimodal intensity histogram and an optimum threshold lies between the histogram peaks. However, due
to non-uniform
background illumination,
the selection of a threshold value from the histogram is
extremely difficult. Worn tool region segmentation
can be achieved through both edge operators (that
directly define the worn region boundary) and texture operators (that find regions of similar surface
texture). An edge is a significant change in the local
image intensity between, for example, the dark image background and the brighter region defining an

61

object surface. By locating the image pixels that are

edges in an image, and linking them together, the
boundaries of objects can be defined. As the gradient
of a function is a measure of change, edge detectors
utilise gradient techniques to locate edges. Recent
work by Kurada and Bradley [32], comparing edge
detection and texture-based operators, has shown the
advantages of texture operators in tool wear assessment.
Texture operators have received much attention in
the image processing literature for their ability to
perform superior segmentation in certain applications
[33]. Texture operators transform pixels with similar
texture into pixels that have a similar brightness,
thereby allowing segmentation to be completed by
applying a simple brightness thresholding operation.
The variance texture operator was used in [32] to
successfully
segment flank wear images acquired
with a CCD camera. The variance of the brightness
values in a 5 X 5 mask around each pixel of interest
is computed as the sum of the squares of the differences between the brightness of the central pixel and
its neighbours. A typical image generated by the
variance operator is shown in Fig. 7; the worn region
has clearly been delineated and can be segmented
from the remainder of the image through intensity
thresholding.
Pixels, present within the wear region boundary,
must be collected into an identifiable morphological
feature from which a set of useful tool wear parameters can be calculated. Clustering is performed on the
binary image generated by texture segmentation. The
algorithm proceeds from top to bottom, scanning left
to right, and collects bright pixel run lengths. Run

Fig. 7. Photograph
variance operator.

of a segmented

flank wear image employing

62

S. Kurada, C.

Computers in

lengths identified in the previous row are combined

with the current run length and amalgamated into the
same feature. The output of this operation are feature
vectors; the largest area feature obtained is the wear
region. However, the interiors still contain dark pixels which must be filled prior to any feature measurement. A feature vector describing the perimeter
of each region is generated, thereby allowing the
interior dark pixels to be converted to bright pixels
in order to obtain a homogenous region (i.e. without
any interior dark valued pixels). Small area features
that remain in the image are eliminated, leaving only
the tool wear feature, through morphological erosion.
A 5 X 5 structuring element is applied to the binary
image to erode smaller areas until the image contains
a single tool wear feature from which the set of tool
wear parameters is calculated. Since the processing
software computes the various wear lengths and
areas in terms of pixels, it is crucial to determine
precise calibration factors (mm/pixel)
for obtaining
an absolute value of these wear parameters.
3.4.2.
texture
Among the non-contact techniques, that have been
proposed as an alternative to the stylus profilometer,
optical techniques are the most promising in terms of
accuracy, speed and flexibility.
Of the numerous
optical techniques that have been used over the
years, the relatively recent introduction of low-cost
vision-based
processing systems has opened up a
new area of surface quality measurement with many
exciting possibilities. Previous research indicates that
the majority of these techniques have focused on
correlating one or more parameters, extracted from
the vision system software processing, with stylus
measurements of R, on the same surface.
During the monitoring process, the workpiece is
positioned on the platform such that the machining
marks are perpendicular to the longer dimension of
the imaging sensor (see Fig. 8). The first step in
processing these images consists of eliminating the
influence of the non-uniform background. This could
be done by subtracting the background image, obtained by fitting a second order regression surface
with points representing the background, from the
original image [34].
Images of the machined surfaces can be processed
either in the spatial or the frequency domain. In the

34 (1997)

Fig. 8. Photograph
surface.

of the characteristic

texture formed on a turned

spatial domain approach, the Gray level histogram of

the scattered pattern is used to extract statistical
parameters. These parameters are then correlated
with the roughness (R,) values, obtained from the
stylus profilometer,
to establish
the calibration
curves. This relationship
varies with the type of
material and machining process employed [35,36].
The frequency domain approach involves the transformation (either optically or digitally) of the original image from the spatial to the Fourier domain.
The magnitude of the frequency components indicates the degree to which periodically
occurring
features are present in the image. The frequency
spectrum is useful in indicating the roughness components due to lay marks, tool wear marks and the
tool vibration [37]. Statistical parameters, derived
from the spectrum, have been correlated with the
surface roughness
obtained with the stylus profilometer.

4. Cutting

tool inspection

Research work carried out in the direct assessment of the tool condition is presented in the following sections.
4.1. Flank wear
The first attempt to utilise a vision system for
characterising tool wear is attributed to Matsushima
et al. [38]. The cutting tool was examined by a TV
camera at every tool change. The gray level image
was converted into a binary image by using a threshold value, selected manually from the intensity histogram. The flank wear width was calculated directly

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/ Computers in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

from the binary image by counting the number of

image elements in the direction of flank wear. Due to
the irregularities in the surface texture of the wear
land, the intensity of the reflected light varies over
the entire worn region. Hence, the use of global
thresholding generally produces a binary image consisting of stray dark pixels within the tool wear
region leading to erroneous results.
By deploying a vision sensor for in-cycle assessment of flank wear, the sophistication of the measurement technique was improved by Cuppini et al.
[39]. A TV camera., equipped with necessary optics,
was mounted on the machine-tool. The cutting tool,
illuminated
by a fibre-optic bundle, was imaged
during cutting dwells. Three different segmentation
algorithms were implemented. The measurement system was not calibrated to provide absolute units of
measurement.
No comparisons were made between
the segmentation
techniques that were used in the
work.
A more comprehensive
approach, using a VICOM-based
image analysis system, has been reported by Lee et al. [40]. The cutting tool was
positioned
under a microscope,
equipped with a
Vidicon camera, u:sing a specifically designed fixture. The processing of the tool wear image was
carried out in twcl steps. First, a simple contrast
stretching algorithm was used to enhance the image,
followed by an interactive segmentation process to
delineate the worn region from the background. By
deriving a number of parameters, an attempt was
made to provide a more complete description of the
flank wear phenomlena. However, the use of interactive segmentation limits the technique to laboratory
use. Controlled illumination
was identified as a key
factor in improving the system performance.
A fibre-optic sensor prototype was developed for
in-cycle inspection of cutting tool wear [41]. Two
different lighting arrangements
were used in conjunction with one camera position to record wear
images from flank and rake faces. For flank wear,
light from a diffused source was used to discriminate
between the worn and the unworn regions. The
segmentation of the flank wear images was accomplished by using lo-pixel wide stripes. For each
stripe, the threshold1 was selected by determining the
average gray level for the worn and unworn regions.
The sensor, with minor modifications, can be utilised

63

on several machines operating under different working conditions.

An alternate approach, using a coherent light
source, was investigated by Jeon and Kim [42]. The
cutting tool tip was illuminated by a laser beam (0.8
mm beam diameter) and the reflected pattern was
captured by a camera, located perpendicular
to the
flank face. A sequence of image processing steps
were performed on the binary image to remove noise
and produce a contour of the wear region. The
accuracy of the system was found to lie within 0.1
mm of the traditional tool microscope results. The
small size of the illumination area limits the amount
of wear information that could be derived from each
image frame. The high processing speed (1.7 set)
makes the sensor suitable for on-line measurement.
The possibility of using a vision sensor for on-line
assessment of flank wear was investigated by Pedersen [43]. The camera and the light source (halogen
lamp) were mounted on VDF-Boehringer
PNE 480
CNC turret lathe. Flank wear region was delineated
by using the threshold value determined from a
smoothed histogram. The measurements
from the
system were found to conform to the traditional
three-stage pattern (initial, steady state and terminal
wear). Due to the spurious reflections from other
parts of the tool, large variations in the flank wear
width were observed. Selection of a threshold from
the gray level histogram in conjunction
with the
inability of the lens to reproduce sharp changes of
contrast limited the accuracy of the measurement
system.
An adaptive observer, combination
of the observer technique based on the flank wear model and
the recursive least squares parameter estimation algorithm, was used to measure flank wear [44]. A
vision system was used to calibrate the results obtained with the adaptive observer. Due to the limited
resolution of the camera, only the central portion of
the flank wear region was imaged. After thresholding, the flank wear width was determined as the
distance between the top and bottom of the flank
wear region. From the experimental results, it was
observed that the integrated method performed well
under constant and time varying cutting conditions.
Teshima et al. [45] were the first to integrate a
vision sensor with neural network processing capability to predict tool life. The state of the flank and

64

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/ Computers in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

crater wear along with the cutting conditions were

input to a 3-layer neural network classifier, which
predicted the rest of tool life and the wear type.
More emphasis was placed on the neural network
processing aspect rather than the tool wear assessment.
A slightly different approach for determining the
flank wear involved the use of the rake face image
[46]. The amount of flank wear was determined from
the deformation data and the sharp tool geometric
data. This method provides an entire flank wear map
along the cutting edge. However, the accuracy of the
method depends on how precisely the relative position and orientation of the tool could be achieved
with respect to the camera.
Sensor Adaptive Machines Inc. (SAMI) has recently developed an optical tool condition sensor for
commercial use. This has been used by Du et al. [47]
for monitoring flank wear. The sensor and the light
source are provided in a completely sealed housing
suitable for use in a machining environment.
The
tool conditions were determined by comparing the
master template of the tool profile, sensed when a
new tool is inserted, and the tool profile obtained
after each cut. The tool profile was calibrated, for the
presence of dirt on the tool tip and the relative
positioning,
from the master tool profile. Various
parameters describing flank wear were derived from
the two profiles. The positioning of the current tool
profile with respect to the master profile is crucial in
extracting accurate wear information. This limits the
deployment of this instrument for in-cycle applications.
A two-pass segmentation
process was used to
identify and label the three texturally distinct regions
in a flank wear image [48]. During the learning
period, several tools were imaged under different
lighting conditions and gray level ranges were assigned for each region. Hough transform, which
identifies straight lines and arcs in an image by
transforming
the image points into the parameter
space of a line or a circular arc was used to identify
the tool tip. Experiments were carried out with two
different workpiece materials, and the wear land
shape was found to be dependent on the material.
The selection of the threshold levels from the learning periods is critical for obtaining a good segmentation of the worn region.

4.2. Crater wear

As crater wear is prevalent only under certain
cutting conditions, fewer studies have been carried
out to investigate the problem. Lee et al. [40] were
the first to utilise a vision system to study the crater
wear growth. Based on the nose angle of the tool, the
software distinguished between the crater and flank
image. To ensure that the tool failure is crater dominated, higher cutting speeds and feeds were employed. Six parameters, including the average nose
radius and the chipped area, were derived from the
crater wear pattern. As pointed out in the flank wear
measurement, the necessity of performing interactive
segmentation limits the method to a laboratory environment.
Giusti et al. [41] proposed a more sophisticated
experimental configuration to record crater wear images. A laser beam was passed through a diffraction
grating and the resulting interference fringes were
projected onto the rake face of the tool. The deflection of the fringes indicated the amount of deformation on the rake face, i.e. crater wear. This arrangement has an advantage of providing a 3D map of
crater wear, however, the control of lighting conditions requires added complexity in the hardware and
would be hard to maintain in an industrial setting.
4.3. Tool breakage
One of the more dominant modes of failure, for
more than a quarter of all the advanced tooling
material, is attributed to the breakage of cutting tool
inserts [49]. For a sensor to be successful in detecting
tool breakage, it should be able to operate under
diverse cutting conditions and the output should be
uniquely distinguishable
[50]. Although machine vision is well suited to tackle this problem, only a few
systems have been implemented.
Matsushima et al. [38] detected the tool breakage
and deformation by tracing the cutting edge line of
the binary image of the cutting tool. If large variations were continuously present over a span of more
than three image elements, breakage was identified
on the cutting edge. Similarly the deformation was
detected when the difference between the original
cutting edge line and the actual exceeded a certain
value. The presence of other process irregularities

Non-coherent

Non-coherent

Park and Ulsoy [441

Du et al. [47]

Oguamanam

Note: PW: Plank wear; CW: Crater wear; +

et al. [48]

Non-coherent

Jeon and Kim 1421

Pedersen [43]

Non-coherent (PW)
Coherent (CW)
Coherent
(dia. 0.8 mm)
Non-coherent

: Not available.

E43
mm)
CCD (RGB)

VIDICON
(0.001 mm)
Philips LDH 0600 CCD
(0.001 mm)
TN 2500 CID
(0.0015 mm)

Thresholding

Template matching

Medium

Medium

Low

Tbresholding
Thresholding

Medium

Thresholding

Medium

Low

Speed

High

Thresholding

Thresholding

VIDICON
(488 X 380 pixels)
VIDICON

Giusti et al. [41]

Algorithm

Camera

Light Source

Non-coherent

Software

tool wear sensors used to-date.

Hardware

of vision-based

Lee et al. I401

Researcher

Table 1
Characteristics

Confidence

+
Level of 0.002

Approx. 5% (PW)

0.03 mm (PW)
0.03 mm (CW)
0.1 mm

Accuracy

Results

Lab

In-cycle

Lab

+
+

In-cycle

Lab

In-cycle

Lab

4.2% (PW)
7.8% (CW)
+

Repeatability

Application
__

Area

3
2
;=
zz
Y

s
B
!z
;:
S

z
$
\

_B
9

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/ Computers in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

66

(hard spots, chip entanglement) or improper selection

of an optimum threshold could lead to an inaccurate
prediction of tool breakage.
Cuppini et al. [39] noted that tool breakage would
result in loss of image section that would be incompatible with normal wear dynamics. Thus a comparison of the tool templates before and after a cutting
process would reveal the occurrence of any breakage. An accurate matching of the templates would
depend on the tool and camera individual positions
being the same in both situations. Also, any problems that occur during the registration of the two
templates would lead to an erroneous prediction.
Oguamanam
et al. [48] predicted breakage by
determining the difference between the nearest tool
edge point and the tool tip, and comparing it with a
pre-set threshold. The tool was classified as broken if
the threshold was exceeded. The threshold was determined from a series of tests performed with a sharp
tool. The threshold was set to accommodate
the
allowable amount of tool tip roundness and round-off
errors. Selection of the proper breakage threshold is
crucial, as it could lead to catastrophic results if a
broken tool was incorrectly classified as good.
To facilitate the comparison of vision-based tool
wear measurement techniques, reviewed in this paper, Table 1 is provided. Table I organised into four
categories, hardware, software, results and the application area.

5. Workpiece surface quality inspection

Research work carried out in the indirect assessment of the tool condition is presented in the following sections.
5.1. Su$ace

texture assessment

One of the earlier attempts in using a vision

system involved a 2D light sectioning method to
study the effect of various operating conditions on
the surface finish of a turned part [51]. An equi-contour map of the patterns was used to highlight various features of the machining process. A 2D Fourier
analysis was shown to be an effective tool in characterising the chatter marks. Baker [52] developed a
microscope image comparator, capable of recording

the image intensity distribution along with the farfield diffraction pattern, for on-machine assessment
of workpiece surface texture. The degradation of the
surface finish with severity of tool wear was shown
by generating profiles from the intensity distribution.
A more successful attempt at quantifying roughness using a vision system involved the use of a
Gray level histogram of the light scattering pattern
from ground surfaces [35]. Optical roughness parameter, defined as the ratio of statistical parameters
derived from the histogram, was correlated with R,
for samples from different materials. A non-linear,
increasing trend with R,, was observed for the optical parameter. As the gray level histogram is based
on tallying the number of pixels for each intensity
level, the optical parameter is affected by the overall
uniformity and degree of illumination. By incorporating a fibre optic lighting arrangement to the measurement system, the technique was extended for
samples from different machining
processes [36].
The technique was further modified to include a
yellow LED (light emitting diode) light source in the
measurement system [53]. A qualitative comparison
of gray level histograms was carried out for various
machined surfaces, but failed to evaluate the results
on a broader set of samples.
Shiraishi and Sato [54] implemented dimensional
and roughness control in a turning operation by
developing an optical system based on the shadow
graph principle. Surface profiles of the turned part
were imaged by passing a laser light beam over the
edges profile. The sensor determined the maximum
value of roughness (typically rough surfaces were
examined, R, = 10 km> on the part and a flat bite
tool was used, where necessary, to keep the roughness profile within tolerance.
Digital Fourier patterns of the light scattering
distribution were shown to be an effective way of
comparing various machined surfaces [55]. It has
been pointed out that these patterns facilitate the
manifestation
of various machining process characteristics. The possibility of generating these patterns
with an optical set-up was investigated by Huynh et
al. [56]. The peaks in the power spectrum, derived
from the Fourier pattern, were found to correlate
with the feed rate spacing. Statistical parameters
computed from the spectrum were used to characterise surface roughness. Cuthbert et al. [57] derived

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/

Computers in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

the gray level hismgram of the optical Fourier pattern to deduce a roughness parameter. As rougher
surfaces tend to c:reate a diffuse pattern on the
camera, the technique was limited to lower roughness range (R, < 0.4 pm). Also, the need for the
precise alignment of the imaging optics, makes it
unsuitable for on-line inspection.
A new hybrid roughness parameter, based on both
the spacing and amplitude characteristics of the machined surfaces, was proposed from the data obtained with a vision system [58]. The parameter was
shown to be successful in the assessment of wear
track for the evaluation of lubricants. However, the
measurements have been limited to the higher roughness range (6-100 pm) due to the low resolution of
the camera.
The ideal roughness profile, that the tool should
produce on the workpiece, was determined by imaging the cutting tool [59]. The profile was found to be
similar to the one observed on the workpiece, and
the differences werf: attributed to the swelling of the
material during the cutting process. Based on an
extensive literature survey, a design strategy for the
potential development of an on-line roughness sensor
was proposed by Jolic et al. [60]. Three algorithms,
based on analysing the scattered light distribution of
machined surfaces, were utilised to process the sensor data. Ceramic parts, machined by different processes, were examined. Parameters from the three
algorithms were faund to correlate reasonably well
with the stylus measurements.
An in-process assessment of turned part quality
was performed by Lonardo et al. [61]. Diffraction
patterns of the rotating stainless steel samples were
recorded by a CCD camera and input into the neural
network for classification.
The ability of the supervised and unsupervised networks for accurately classifying the machined surfaces was assessed.
More recently, a fairly comprehensive
database
comprising of three:-dimensional light scatter images,
their classification
measures, lookup tables of the
most efficient measures and the 3D stylus maps was
compiled for samples from different machining processes [62]. The classification measures used include:
geometric, colour content and AI. The lookup tables
were provided to identify the best measures for a
given machining process. It has been pointed out that
the system is capable of discriminating
surfaces with

67

similar finish, produced by different machining processes.

To facilitate the comparison of vision-based surface roughness measurement techniques, reviewed in
this paper, Table 2 is provided. Table 2 is organised
into four categories, hardware, software, highlights
and the application area.
5.2. Correlation
life

of surface texture with machine tool

Theoretically,
the surface roughness
workpiece is given by
f2
R, = ~
18fiR

of a turned

where f is the feed rate and R is the tool nose

radius. The roughness can be affected by the following factors [63]:
- Controllable
operating conditions such as the feed rate, cutting speed and the depth of cut;
material properties of the cutting tool and the
workpiece;
tool geometry.
- Uncontrollable
tool conditions such as chatter, wear and builtup-edge.
In the absence of uncontrollable
factors, the surface roughness was found to conform to the theoretical value [63]. The optimum cutting conditions for
carbide and ceramic tools were investigated by incorporating tool life, which was defined as the time
required for the surface roughness R, to deteriorate
to a value of 1.524 pm (representative
of general
finish turning) [64]. Allen and Brewer [65] related
the machine variability and tool flank wear to the
surface roughness of the workpiece. The R, values
were found to be distributed normally,
with the
lowest value reported at a tool flank wear of 0.737
mm. Gillibrand and Heginbotham
[66] related the
surface roughness values, obtained from the lay and
perpendicular
directions, to the cutting speed for
various workpiece materials.
Sundaram and Lambert [67] found in their investigation that the lowest roughness values were obtained at a flank wear width of 0.889 mm. It was

Non-coherent

Non-coherent

Non-coherent

Coherent

Al-Kindi et al. 1581

Jolic et al. 1601

Lonardo et al. 1611

Griffiths et al. 1621

: Not available.

Coherent

Cuthbert et al. [57]

Note: +

35 mm SLR
camera
CCD
(640 x 80)
CCD

Coherent

Huynh et al. [56]

Various processes
Turning
Various processes

Low
High
High

Reflection

Diffraction
pattern + Neural network

pattern and neural network

three different algorithms

Milling, turning

Medium

Compared

Grinding,

Medium

Optical Fourier transform and Gray

level histogram
Gray level image intensity profiles

flat lapping

Grinding

Low

Optical Fourier transform

processes

Grinding

Speed
Medium

Algorithm
Gray level histogram

Machining

Camera
CCD
(49 1 x 384)
CCD
(480 X 525)
CCD
(480 x 525)
CCD

Light source

Non-coherent

Highlights

Software

systems

Hardware

surface texture measurement

Luk et al. 1351

Researcher

Table 2
Attributes of vision-based

Lab
Lab
(480 X 525)
Lab
In-process
In-cycle

+
+
+
+

Lab

8.9%
+

Lab

8.6%

Repeatability

Application

area

2
<
z?
2
cn

i;

9
&
z
Y
s
B
E
9
S
2
f

2
ii
_B
0

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/Computers

also observed that the roughness values obtained

with a tool having a flank wear level of 0.838 mm
were less than those obtained in the initial stage of
tool wear. This suggested that the tool can be used
productively for a greater length of time rather than
discarding them at a wear level of 0.762 mm. Also,
no significant variation in the diameter of the turned
part was observed beyond the flank wear level of
0.84 mm.
Sata et al. [68] studied the wavelength spectrum
of the machined workpiece to identify abnormal
conditions
such as chatter, spindle error and the
swelling of the workpiece. A monitoring
system,
which utilised a light reflectance sensor in conjunction with a pattern classification model, was developed by Domfeld and Fei [69]. The classifier, based
on the linear discriminant
function, was able to
distinguish between surfaces, produced under different states of the cutting tool condition.
Xue et al. [70] utilised scanning electron microscope (SEM) images to study the effect of flank
wear on the machined surface quality. The roughness
of the machined surface was found to deteriorate
with increase in tool wear. Additionally, small cavities were detected on the surface. When a severely
worn tool was used., the machined surface was found
to be very rough, with partially fractured laps or
cracks on the outside boundary. This was attributed
to the higher contact pressure between the tools
flank face and the workpiece, resulting in adhesion
wear.
Surface roughne.ss of the workpiece was incorporated as a specification for tool condition by Du et al.
[48]. When a new insert was used, the roughness
values initially decreased over the first few cuts, and
then started to increase gradually until the tool was
worn out. The surface roughness values were found
to increase at a much higher rate, when the tool was
worn out. Based on this behaviour, a new model that
compensated for tool wear was proposed. The tool
was classified as good, if the roughness predicted by
the model was less than that required, otherwise it
was discarded. A workpiece inspection
strategy,
based on the statistical analysis of the roughness
data, was developed by Yang and Jeang [71]. A
mathematical model developed for predicting flank
wear was used to describe the surface roughness
behaviour.

69

in Industry 34 (I 997) 55-72

6. Integrating wear sensors with data communication

The diagram in Fig. 9 illustrates the integration of
a vision-based
tool wear monitor within a miniworkcell environment.
At the supervisory level of
the network, operations such as CNC part program
creation and part scheduling
are performed. The
information, for each CNC lathe, is transmitted to
the machine via a protocol such as MAP (manufacturing automation protocol) over a local area network. Fibre optic network links are preferred due to
their high bandwidth and immunity to radio frequency noise and cross talk.
Information on tool wear state (and additionally
surface texture of the work piece) is provided by
each of the vision sensors. As previously discussed,
each tool wear image is processed to extract the
relevant wear parameter; this can be accomplished at
each CNC lathe or alternatively, each image can be
supplied to a central image processing station (via
the fibre optic link) at the supervisory level. Higher
level information regarding tool wear and surface
quality can be combined with other sensor information to monitor the overall machine tool condition.
Each CNC controller, as illustrated in Fig. 9,
would typically be a closed box controller that has

Fig. 9. Integration
control network.

of vision-based

tool monitors

with work cell

S. Kurada, C. Bradley/ Computers in Industry 34 (1997) 55-72

70

the principal function of processing the part program

and controlling the tools servo motors. Recent trends
to open architecture controllers permit vision processor boards to reside on a common bus with the
CNCboard. This eliminates the need for additional
stand alone computers at each cell, and ultimately
would permit more immediate reaction to changing
tool condition at the machine tool level. A single
vision-based sensor (with associated processing software) can monitor both tool wear and workpiece
surface texture (such as average roughness and asperity peak count). Complimentary
sensor data permits construction of a process model that would be
unavailable from a single sensor which is inherently
a more reliable source of feedback on the tool wear
state.

7. Concluding

remarks

The state of vision technology as applied to tool

condition monitoring has been discussed in this paper. The development of these sensors is particularly
crucial for the realisation of fully automated manufacturing environments,
such as unmanned machining centres.
The computer vision techniques provide additional wear data (tool chipped area, tool wear area,
etc.) that are not available from most of the other
sensors. However, more research is needed in establishing vision sensors for on-line applications in an
industrial environment.
Future research should be
aimed at developing
a sensor that is capable of
deriving tool wear parameters from multiple data
modes (e.g. morphological
and textural data) and
fusing the data modes to provide a robust indicator
of tool condition. The work discussed in this paper
has demonstrated that vision sensors adapt well for
measuring multiple modes of wear data. Some of the
observations
arising from this review, are summarised below:
The use of Gray level images should be explored.
The inherently greater information content present
in gray level images will enable more reliable tool
wear monitoring at no extra cost. Textural characteristics or pattern recognition techniques could

also be used with gray level images, to greater

effect.
Surface texture information,
obtained from the
workpiece, should be incorporated into the tool
wear prediction model. Such information could be
vital in the selection of optimum cutting conditions. This information could be obtained by using the same vision sensor, that has been used for
tool condition monitoring, with minor modifications.
Most of the research that has been carried out
using vision sensors for tool wear measurement
involved global thresholding.
The use of more
efficient segmentation algorithms, such as region
based techniques, should be investigated as they
are less prone to errors.
To establish vision sensors as a standard for tool
wear measurement, more studies have to be undertaken with a wide range of materials and under
different machining conditions. Also, the results
should be validated with theoretical models that
have been proposed in the past, as the information
obtained from traditional techniques is very limited.
A standardised benchmark for the system performance in terms of accuracy, precision and bias
should be reported for every vision sensor that is
implemented for tool wear measurement.

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Satya Kurada is presently working as a
research and development
engineer at
Mipox International
Corporation,
Hayward, California. He earned his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the
University
of Windsor,
Windsor,
Canada. His research interests include
automated inspection, surface topography and image processing.

CoIin Bradley is an Associate Professor

of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria, British Columbia,
Canada. Currently, his research interests
include the application of 3D machine
vision to reverse engineering
and the
use of sensor technologies
within the
manufacturing work cell.