Continuous learning support vector machine to estimate stability lobe diagrams in milling

The productivity of milling processes is limited by the occurrence of chatter vibrations. The correlation of the maximum stable cutting depth and the spindle speed can be shown in a stability lobe diagram (SLD). Today it is a great effort to estimate the SLD. Lot's of experiments are necessary to measure the SLD or derive a detailed mathematical model to calculate the SLD. Moreover not only cutting depth, but also the cutting width should be taken into account. This paper presents an approach to learn the multidimensional stability lobe diagram (MSLD) during the production based on continuously measured signals using a support vector machine. The support vector machine is extended to make it capable for continuous learning and time-variant systems. The process conditions are classified as stable or unstable. The learned MSLDs are very similar to the analytically calculated MSLDs. Changes over time in the system dynamics can also be learned by the proposed algorithm.