An automated
hand tool sharpening and cleaning
system for
sharpening the two opposed
cutting edges of domestic, industrial, sport, or hobby
hand tool like a knife blade is provided by the invention. The apparatus comprises a six-axis
robotic arm, a
pneumatic gripper, a
vision sensor camera for profiling the blade edges, a robotic controller, and sequentially-arranged
grinding, coarse
sharpening, fine sharpening, and buffing rotating wheel assemblies used to
grind, sharpen, and buff or polish the
cutting edges of the knife blade. The blade
cutting edges are profiled by the
camera image that is processed by associated
software to define the blade by multiple points defined along its edge, followed by a set of algorithms that are used to
clean up any discrepancies in the profile data. The resulting corrected profile data is then translated into a set of
machine control commands fed to the
robotic arm and
pneumatic gripper via the
robot controller for manipulating the knife blade edges via the
robotic arm with respect to each of the
grinding, coarse sharpening, fine sharpening, and buffing /
polishing wheels and an associated wash
station for remove bits of
metal and other residue resulting from the sharpened knife blade.