Tool monitoring and machine diagnosis in real machining have been crucial to the realization of fully automated machining. Also, the on-line detection technique of the tool breakage in machining should be supported. The effect of tool breakage is usually revealed from an abrupt change in the processed measurements, which is in excess of a threshold value. Although these techniques are generally effective for a specific cutting condition, they are often not sufficiently reliable for use in production due to the inability of single measurement to reflect tool breakage under various cutting conditions. In order to enhance the reliability of tool breakage signatures obtained from a single sensor, an integrated approach based on measurements from several sensors has been put forward. In this study, the tool breakage detection method using multi-sensors is proposed and the sensor fusion algorithm is developed to integrate and make decisions from data measured through the multisensors. Also, the performances of this scheme are compared and evaluated with real cutting process. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
