International Journal of Automation and Computing 1 (2006) 56-62

Monitoring Grinding Wheel Redress-life Using

Support Vector Machines
Xun Chen , Thitikorn Limchimchol
School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

Abstract: Condition monitoring is a very important aspect in automated manufacturing processes. Any malfunction
of a machining process will deteriorate production quality and eciency. This paper presents an application of support
vector machines in grinding process monitoring. The paper starts with an overview of grinding behaviour. Grinding force
is analysed through a Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) to identify features for condition monitoring. The Support
Vector Machine (SVM) methodology is introduced as a powerful tool for the classication of dierent wheel wear situations.
After training with available signal data, the SVM is able to identify the state of a grinding process. The requirement and
strategy for using SVM for grinding process monitoring is discussed, while the result of the example illustrates how eective
SVMs can be in determining wheel redress-life.

Keywords: Monitoring, grinding, support vector machine.

1 Introduction which the training process is a tedious job, and often

Condition monitoring is widely used in the manu-
facturing industry. In a machining process the varia-
tion of tool life due to dierent tool wear performance
has a great impact on production quality, productivity,
and cost. Reliable process monitoring tools are of fun-
damental importance to critical component machining
processes, especially in the aerospace industry. Con-
dition monitoring can be divided into two categories
(1) direct and (2) indirect. The direct method gener-
ally involves determining tool wear directly from tool
surface observation and measurement. Using metro-
logical measurement, computer vision, and/or image
processing, etc. Indirect methods monitor tool wear
by sensing the physical behaviour of a machining pro-
cess, which can include changes in force, vibration, and
temperature, etc. In this paper, indirect monitoring is
investigated for grinding wheel redress-life monitoring.
Traditional machining monitoring, focuses on the
average values of monitored signals as a time function.
Signal features in the frequency domain are also com-
monly considered. To improve the accuracy of moni-
toring, articial intelligence such as neural networks,
fuzzy logic, or other pattern recognition techniques,
have been applied[14] . However, the use of a neural
network depends on the proper selection of the amount
of training data, and the type of network structure, of
relies on a trial and error approach.
The recent developments of SVM[510] , and Least
Square Support Vector Machines (LS-SVM)[11] , have
been successfully applied to feature classications in
dierent elds. Using SVMs to judge the redress-life
of a grinding wheel during grinding, would provide a
rational test in developing a reliable tool for grinding
process monitoring. This paper reports on an investi-
gation of grinding process monitoring, using LS-SVM
to analyse grinding force signals. Grinding force signals
are analysed in both time, and frequency domains, us-
ing a Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) analysis
to create a power spectrum over time. These time-
frequency domain methods oer a clear illustration of
the features of grinding system performance. They
demonstrate that the characteristics of grinding force
extracted by a STFT can be used as input for a SVM.
Good judgement of grinding wheel life using LS-SVM
classication has been achieved.
The paper is organized as follows. Grinding chatter
and force characteristics are briey described in sec-
tion 2. In section 3, feature analysis by STFT is intro-
duced, followed by the principles of SVMs in section 4,
experimental results are discussed in section 5, while
conclusions are given in section 6.
2 Grinding process characteristics

Manuscript received March 1, 2005; revised September 28, Grinding performance characteristics can be related
2005. to the shape of grinding chips, which are inuenced by
Corresponding author. E-mail address:
a large number of parameters. Fundamentally, wheel
xun.chen@nottingham.ac.uk speed, work speed, and the distribution of cutting edges
 Xun Chen et al./ Monitoring Grinding Wheel Redress-life Using Support Vector Machines
on a wheel surface will determine the shape of grinding
chips. A material removal rate can be expressed by an
equivalent chip thickness. However, the distribution
of a cutting edge on a wheel surface, varies continu-
ally, due to the eects of the dressing operation, and
the nature of the wheel wear process. Wheel wear is
a complex process, which includes cutting edge attri-
tional wear, and the fracturing of grits and bonding
materials. Because of the random distribution of grits
in a wheel space, some of the most extrusive grits may
wear quickly and form large plateaus on their surface.
This causes large forces to act on them. Self-sharpening
occurs due to the fracturing of grits or bonds. The
inuence of such wear behaviour can reect on grind-
ing forces, which consist of static and dynamic compo-
nents. Static force relates to average material removal,
while dynamic force refers to vibrations occurring in
response to persistent disturbance, such as wheel, or
workpiece imbalance, wheel run out, uneven grit wear
distribution or other imbalanced rotating components
of the grinding machine.
Grinding chatter, also known as self-excited vibra-
tion, is a harmful phenomenon that can cause ex-
cessive dynamic forces leading to unacceptable wheel
wear, and in extreme cases causes catastrophic disas-
ters. Grinding chatter usually develops gradually, due
to grinding wheel wear. Chatter makes a wheel sur-
face uneven, resulting in poor surface quality, and low
machining productivity. A dressing operation is often
required to restore good wheel cutting ability. There-
fore, judging wheel redress-life is an important issue in
a grinding operation.
3 Process feature analysis
Grinding force signals can be used to detect the
development of chatter in grinding, because dynamic
grinding forces represent the reaction of the grind-
ing system to vibration. A Fourier transform is com-
monly used to analyse vibration behaviour in a fre-
quency domain. However, for an unstable process, a
Fourier transform cannot indicate how process features
will change over time. In recent years, jointed time-
frequency analysis has become popular as a method to
overcome the drawback of a conventional Fourier trans-
form. A STFT is a popular method for time-frequency
analysis.
The basic idea of a STFF, is to split a non sta-
tionary signal, into segments in a time domain by the
proper selection of a window function; and then to
carry out a Fourier transform on each of these seg-
ments separately. This process delivers an instanta-
neous spectrum. STFT decomposes time-varying sig-
nals into time-frequency domain components; hence
57
a spectrogram is created when a window position is
shifted by one or several measured values. The time
characteristics of the process can be presented by re-
peating the Fourier transform for each window posi-
tion.
Although STFT has a xed frequency resolution for
all frequencies, once the size of a window is chosen, it
enables an easier interpretation in terms of harmonics,
and is faster in comparison to other methods[12] . The
mathematical model of STFT is:


ST F T (t, ) = s( )t, ( t)ej d. (1)
Because the window function (t) has a short time du-
ration, the Fourier transform of s( )( t) reects the
signals local frequency properties. By moving (t) and
repeating the same process, we can see how the signals
frequency contents evolve over time.
However, there is a trade o in the selection of time
and frequency resolution. If (t) is chosen to have
a good time resolution, then its frequency resolution
must be reduced, and vice versa. Equality only holds
when (t) is a Gaussian function[13] .
Fig.1 shows the results of a STFT analysis of grind-
ing forces, where grinding depth of cut is 1 mm. The
eect of grinding wear over a time-frequency domain,
can easily be identied from the results to enable grind-
ing wheel condition to be monitored in relation to force
signal. It can be seen that some features in the force
frequency spectrum increase during each grinding.
Fig.1 Signals over a time-frequency domain for 4 grinding
cuts after ltering with a band pass Chebchev II lter
The objective of using STFT is to unify informa-
tion from both a time and frequency domain, in order
58 International Journal of Automation and Computing 1 (2006) 56-62

to provide more detailed information suitable for clas- where the weighting vector w denes the direction of
sication algorithms. the separating hyperplane f (x), and b (bias), denes
the distance of the hyperplane from the origin. The
4 Support vector machines problem can be solved by using a Lagrange multiplier,
as given in equation 4:
SVMs have been recognised as powerful machine
learning tools, with good theoretical properties for con- m
1
vergence and generalisation. They were rst intro- L(w, b, ) = (w w) i [yi ((wi xi ) + b) 1]. (4)
duced by Vapnik in the late 1960s[14] on the founda- 2 j=1
tion of statistical learning theory; which is a general
mathematical framework for estimating dependencies Therefore the optimal problem in (2) is equivalent to
from empirical and nite data sets. The basic idea of the maximization of the objective function shown in
a SVM is to determine a classier machine that mini- (5).
mizes structural risk consisting of empirical error, and
the complexity of a model leading to good generaliza-
tion error. It can deal with both binary problems and
multi-class problems.
A classication problem, can be restricted to the
consideration of a two-class problem without loss of
generality. The aim is to separate two classes by a
function induced from available examples, and produce
a classier that will work well on unseen examples. As-
suming data to be classied is linearly separable, there
will be many possible linear classiers or functions that
can be used to separate the data; but there is only one
linear function that maximizes margin.
A hyperplane can be dened using a number of sup-
port vectors, which can draw a boundary between the
two classes. In non-linear cases, the use of support vec-
tors allows complex boundaries to be created. Through
the minimisation of a quadratic programming problem, Fig.2 A hyperplane classier towards
the margin of separation between each class can be a non-separable data set
maximised. Nearest data points are used to dene the
margin, and are known as support vectors. Once sup- Maximize:
port vectors contain all needed information, the SVM
function then becomes a classier. 
l
1 
l
L() = i yi yj i j (xi xj ) (5)
2 i,j=1
4.1 Basic principle of support vector ma- i=1
chines
Subject to:
A SVM can be considered as simply creating a line,
or a hyperplane, between two sets of data, as shown in 
l

Fig.2. It attempts to place a linear boundary between yi i = 0, i
0, i = 1, , l. (6)

i=1
two dierent classes of data, and orientate it in such
a way that margin is maximized. In other words, it The problem of classifying a new data point x, is solved
is used to maximize the distance between the nearest simply by looking at the value of the following hyper-
data points, or boundary, of each class. A boundary is plane decision function:
then placed in the middle of the margin between the
two classes. Therefore the problem becomes: f (x) = sign(w x + b ) (7)
Minimize
1

w
2 (2) where the weight vector w , is calculated from function
2 (8):
Subject to 
l
w = yi i xi (8)
yi ((w xi ) + b
0, i = 1, , l (3) i=1
 Xun Chen et al./ Monitoring Grinding Wheel Redress-life Using Support Vector Machines 59

and b has to be calculated by making use of primal K(xi , xj ) in the algorithm. The SVM computes a value
constraints, due to its appearance in the dual problem for i that corresponds to the maximal margin hyper-
in (9): plane in the feature space, by replacing dierent kernel
functions in (xi xj ). There are some common exam-
maxyi =1 (w xi ) + minyi =1 (w xi )
b = . ples of kernel functions for mapping vectors in feature
2 spaces. These include:
(9)
An unknown data example x is then classied as fol- Radial Basis Function kernel
2
lows:  /22
Class I, if f (x) > 0 K(xi , xj ) = exi xj  (15)
x . (10)
Class II, otherwise Polynomial Kernel
So far training data is assumed to be linearly separable.
K(xi , xj ) = (xi xj + 1)d (16)
In cases where training data cannot be linearly sepa-
rated, as in the example shown in Fig.2, non-negative Sigmoid function
slack variables i are introduced to form equations 11
and 12, so as to produce a non-linear problem. In equa- K(xi , xj ) = tanh(xi xj ). (17)
tion 11, the sum of slack variables is multiplied by a
parameter C, which is chosen by a user. A larger C In which the decision function will be:
corresponds to a higher penalty for errors. This cor- 
l 
responds to the addition of an upper bound C to i . f (x) = sign i yj K(xi , xj ) + b . (18)
In both cases, the decision function in (equation 7) is i=1

equivalent, and given by: In this case, the unknown data example is classied in
Minimize: the following way:
1  l

w
2 + C ik (11) 
2 Class I, if f (x) = 1
i x . (19)
Class II, if f (x) = 1
Subject to:

yi ((w xi ) + b)
1 i , i
0, i = 1, , l. (12) 4.3 Least square support vector machines

Then an unknown data example x is classied as fol- An original SVM, may not be suitable in prac-
lows:  tice, due to its time consumption during the computa-
Class I, if f (x) > 0 tion of quadratic programming. A least square SVM,
x . (13)
Class II, otherwise was developed by Suykens and Vandewalle for solving
The above SVM classier is an important concept pattern recognition and non-linear function estimation
for the analysis and construction of more complicated problems[15] . The SVM equation modication devel-
SVMs. oped by Suykens, is as follows:
Minimize:
1 2
l
4.2 Nonlinear kernel mapping 1

w
2 + C (20)
2 2 i i
In the case where a linear boundary is inappropri-
ate, the transformation of vector x into a higher dimen- Subject to:
sional feature space is required. The transformation
yi ((w xi ) + b) = 1 i , i
0, i = 1, , l. (21)
into a higher-dimensional feature space requires rela-
tively intensive computation. It is possible to calculate The classier in a dual space, is similar to the standard
a kernel which is the inner products of a feature space, SVM case.
in an original data space

l 
K(xi , xj ) = (xi )(xj ). (14) f (x) = sign i yj K(xi , xj ) + b (22)
i=1
The idea of a kernel function, is to enable operations to
Where i are Lagrangian multipliers. The application
be performed in an input space, rather than in a high
of conditions for optimality yield the following linear
dimension feature space. It is not necessary to know an
KKT (Karush-Kuhn-Tucker) system:
actual mapping function , hence there is no need to
    
evaluate an inner product in the feature. Therefore in 0 yT b 0
= . (23)
this case, a dot product (xi xj ) can be replaced with y + C 1 I 1v
60 International Journal of Automation and Computing 1 (2006) 56-62

Where: = Z T Z, Z T = (y1 (x1 ), , yn (xn )), MATLAB LS-SVM toolbox[15] . A Radial Basis Func-
Y T = (y1 , , yn ), 1v = (1, , 1) and = tion (RBF) kernel was selected for classication. This
(1 , , n ). Then: method can distinguish air cutting and actual grind-
ing clearly, as shown in Fig.4, where the LS-SVM gives
= (xi , xl ) = (xi )T (xl ), i, l = 1, , N. (24) 1 for air cutting and 1 for actual grinding. The re-
sults from both training, and test sets, are completely
By applying the kernel to the matrix in equation 23,
satisfactory. Surprisingly, the method coped well with
classier function estimation becomes:
environmental noise, and the disturbance of coolant dy-

l  namic force did not aect its judgement.
f (x) = sign i yj K(xi , xj ) + b . (25)
i=1

The Vapnik formulation is modied here in two ways.

First, instead of the inequality constraints (equation
21), one takes equality constraints, in which the value
1 on the right hand side is considered as a target, rather
than a threshold value. Upon this target value, an error
variable i is applied, such that misclassications can
be tolerated in the case of overlapping distributions.
These error variables play a similar role to the slack
variable i , in SVM formulations. Second, a squared
loss function, as shown in equation 20 is taken for the
error variable, as these modications will greatly sim-
plify the problem[11] .
LS-SVM, oers most of the properties of the origi-
nal SVM, such as great generalization capacity. Non-
Fig.3 A 3D spectrogram of normal grinding force
linear problems can be solved by mapping data into a
components during 4 sequential cuts
high dimension feature space using kernel methods. It
is excellent for classifying a problem with an unseen
data example. However, the greatest advantage of the
LS-SVM is faster computational time, which is a key
requirement for online condition monitoring.

5 Grinding process monitoring using

SVM
A set of grinding experiments were carried out on
a Makino A55 CNC machine centre. A workpiece was
ground using a VIPER wheel. Grinding depth of cut
was 1 mm; grinding speed 35 m/s; and workpiece speed
1000 mm/min. Workpiece material was Inconel 718.
Grinding forces were recorded using a LABVIEW pro-
gram and data analysed using programs written within
a MATLAB environment. Signal features extracted us-
ing a STFT program were sent to the SVM program to
classify grinding conditions. A 3D view of the STFT Fig.4 Grinding detection using SVM
spectrums of grinding force during 4 sequential grind-
ing cuts, are illustrated in Fig.3. It can be seen that Once actual grinding took place, another SVM clas-
the feature frequency components of dynamic forces, sication program was employed to monitor the condi-
increase with grinding time. tion of the grinding wheel. The input signals of the
The rst classication test in the trials, was to iden- SVM were, grinding forces, grinding power, and dy-
tify air cutting, and actual grinding, grinding force sig- namic features extracted from grinding forces. The dy-
nals. These were obtained by applying a moving av- namic features of grinding forces were taken by using a
erage method to remove high frequency components STFT program. Force signals were pre-processed using
of grinding forces. Analysis was carried out using a a Chebychev II band-pass lter to reduce the inuence
 Xun Chen et al./ Monitoring Grinding Wheel Redress-life Using Support Vector Machines
of noise. The Radial Basis Function kernel was used
in this SVM monitoring process. Fig.5 shows projec-
tions of the monitored force, power signals, and STFT
spectrum, as grinding time functions during 4 grind-
ing cuts. The output of the SVM, which is plotted on
the lower part of the graph, clearly indicates the de-
velopment of grinding chatter. The value 3 indicates
good wheel condition, while a value 1 highlights the
presence of grinding chatter.
Fig.5 Grinding chatter monitoring using SVM
It can be seen from Fig.5 that the development
of grinding chatter is not an instantaneous event. A
certain time period is required before continuous chat-
ter is established. This is because the development of
grinding chatter is the result of grinding wheel wear.
As mentioned previously, grinding wheel wear involves
two phenomena, attritious wear causing blunt cutting
edges, and fracture wear creating sharp cutting edges.
The sharpness of a grinding wheel depends on the equi-
librant situation of dierent wear mechanisms. An oc-
casional presence of grinding chatter does not require
the redressing of a grinding wheel. However, continu-
ous grinding chatter is dangerous to a grinding opera-
tion. It is rational to dene that a greater than 50%
level of chatter in one grinding cut, is an indicator of
the end of a wheels redress-life. Therefore, a SVM
can be used for grinding wheel life monitoring. This
is validated by the results illustrated in Fig.5. During
a second grinding cut, chatter presence was 5%, which
meant that grinding was normal for the remainder of
the grinding operation. However, as chatter presence
in the third cut was 55%, it indicates that the grinding
wheel requires redressing. Without redressing, grind-
ing chatter will occur continuously, as shown in Fig.5.
If grinding wheel speed is increased to 55 m/s,
a SVM can still provide a good indication of wheel
61
redress-life, as shown in Fig.6. In this experiment,
grinding chatter developed intermittently. During the
4th cut, chatter occurrence was greater than 50%.
Therefore, the wheel should have been redressed after
the 4th cut, before continuous chatter occurred. The
longer redress-life of the wheel was due to the lower
grinding force generated at a higher grinding speed.
Further experiments using dierent grinding condi-
tions, (wheel speed: 3555 m/s, depth of cut: 12 mm
and work speed: 12 m/min), also indicate that the
SVM tool is a feasible method with which to monitor
grinding wheel life.
Fig.6 Grinding chatter monitoring using SVM
6 Conclusions
Condition monitoring using SVMs is feasible, and
can ensure consistent production quality. In this pa-
per, it has been successfully demonstrated that grind-
ing process performance can be monitored, and identi-
ed, using a LS-SVM algorithm. Test results are sat-
isfactory, since a LS-SVM can give good classication
with a small quantity of training data and time. Us-
ing a decision support algorithm, the behaviour of a
grinding process can be seen to relate to grinding wheel
condition. In future work, more sensors will be applied
to study chatter, and other defects which can occur
during the grinding process, to provide more accurate
process information. The development of a real-time
remote diagnostic system, will provide manufacturers
with precise and reliable information for managing and
conducting manufacturing activities.
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Xun Chen received his B. Eng.
degress from Fuzhou University. He re-
ceived his M. Sc. degree from Zhejiang
University and his Ph. D. degree from
Liverpool John Moores University. He
has been a visiting professor to Fuzhou
University since 2001.
Dr. Chen has published more than
100 research papers. He is a founder
member of the International Commit-
tee of Abrasive Technology. Before his
employment at Nottingham, Dr. Chen was a lecturer of Mechan-
ical Engineering at the University of Dundee. Prior to that, he
was a research fellow, a Royal Society Royal Fellow at Liverpool
John Moores University and a lecturer at Fuzhou University.
His research interests include advanced manufacturing tech-
nology including application of computer science, mechatronics
and articial intelligence to manufacturing process monitoring
and control, particularly to the high eciency precision grind-
ing.
Thitikorn Limchimchol received his
B. Eng. (honour) degree in manu-
facturing engineering from University
of Nottingham in United Kingdom in
2002. Currently he is undertaking his
doctorial study on manufacturing en-
gineering in the University of Notting-
ham. His main research interests in-
clude Grinding Technology, Articial
Intelligence, Support Vector Machines,
Genetic Algorithm, and Java
Application.