Converting a curve to right-angled increments

Abstract

Servo systems used in numerical control are to be fed by incremental commands. For the two-dimensional case the Taylor expansion off(x,y) is a useful way to compute these increments. The proper increment in each moment can simply be deduced from the sign of the terms involved in the Taylor expansion. Three special curves are analyzed: the straight line, the circle or the circular arc and the general curve of second order. The computation and the execution of the commands can be more or less synchronous. Simplified flow diagrams for the computer program under two different assumptions are shown.