A numerically controlled machine for electronic production

Abstract

The aim of the project is to control the movement of an automatic PCB drilling machine. Once the PCB is designed and drawn on screen, the coordinates of the pins of all the components are extracted. The whole set of coordinates is subject to two mathematical algorithms whose objectives are identical, namely, that of establishing the shortest path round all the holes. The newly ordered set of points of the 'better' algorithm is transferred to a single-board-computer where they are temporarily stored in memory, prior to being fed to two stepper motor controllers. Their job is to drive the X and Y stepper motors which would position the drill bit over the desired location.