CNC-Net: Self-Supervised Learning for CNC Machining Operations

Mohsen Yavartanoo, Sangmin Hong, Reyhaneh Neshatavar, Kyoung Mu Lee; Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2024, pp. 9816-9825

CNC manufacturing is a process that employs computer numerical control (CNC) machines to govern the movements of various industrial tools and machinery encompassing equipment ranging from grinders and lathes to mills and CNC routers. However the reliance on manual CNC programming has become a bottleneck and the requirement for expert knowledge can result in significant costs. Therefore we introduce a pioneering approach named CNC-Net representing the use of deep neural networks (DNNs) to simulate CNC machines and grasp intricate operations when supplied with raw materials. CNC-Net constitutes a self-supervised framework that exclusively takes an input 3D model and subsequently generates the essential operation parameters required by the CNC machine to construct the object. Our method has the potential to transformative automation in manufacturing by offering a cost-effective alternative to the high costs of manual CNC programming while maintaining exceptional precision in 3D object production. Our experiments underscore the effectiveness of our CNC-Net in constructing the desired 3D objects through the utilization of CNC operations. Notably it excels in preserving finer local details exhibiting a marked enhancement in precision compared to the state-of-the-art 3D CAD reconstruction approaches. The codes are available at https://github.com/myavartanoo/CNC-Net_PyTorch.