Off-line programming (OLP) system becomes one of the most important programming modules for the robotic belt grinding process, however there lacks research on increasing the grinding dexterous space depending on the OLP system. A new type of grinding robot and a novel robotic belt grinding workcell are forwarded, and their features are briefly introduced. An open and object-oriented off-line programming system is developed for this robotic belt grinding system. The parameters of the trimmed surface are read from the initial graphics exchange specification (IGES) file of the CAD model of the workpiece. The deBoor-Cox basis function is used to sample the grinding target with local contact frame on the workpiece. The numerical formula of inverse kinematics is set up based on Newton's iterative procedure, to calculate the grinding robot configurations corresponding to the grinding targets. After the grinding path is obtained, the OLP system turns to be more effective than the teach-by-showing system. In order to improve the grinding workspace, an optimization algorithm for dynamic tool frame is proposed and performed on the special robotic belt grinding system. The initial tool frame and the interval of neighboring tool frames are defined as the preparation of the algorithm. An optimized tool local frame can be selected to grind the complex surface for a maximum dexterity index of the robot. Under the optimization algorithm, a simulation of grinding a vane is included and comparison of grinding workspace is done before and after the tool frame optimization. By the algorithm, the grinding workspace can be enlarged. Moreover the dynamic tool frame can be considered to add one degree-of-freedom to the grinding kinematical chain, which provides the theoretical support for the improvement of robotic dexterity for the complex surface grinding.
