Predicting and compensating for small-sample thermal information data in precision machine tools: A spatial-temporal interactive integration network and digital twin system approach

The thermal errors in ball screws present complex spatial-temporal characteristics and exhibit persistent long-term memory, significantly affecting the machining accuracy of the whole machine tool in applications. Deep learning has emerged as a promising approach to predict these errors using thermal data. However, the scarcity of extensive thermal datasets, typically due to the prohibitive costs and time required for experimental acquisition, hampers the comprehensive exploitation of spatial-temporal and long-term memory attributes. Moreover, the current thermal error compensation system does not support the deployment of deep learning-based thermal error models due to its weak real-time performance. These limitations lead to suboptimal prediction accuracy and inadequate error compensation. Addressing this challenge, a novel spatial-temporal interactive integration network is proposed, and this is a sophisticated model that synergistically blends a time memory gate and a spatial-temporal fusion gate within an advanced attention-based spatial-temporal graph convolutional framework. Our network ingeniously leverages spatial data to anchor long-term memory while employing temporal data for selective memory feature extraction, facilitating a refined integration of spatial-temporal features. Concurrently, the integration of gated recurrent units and a time attention layer meticulously extracts and enhances temporal features, bolstered by our innovative time memory gate, which is adept at handling small-sample scenarios and refining thermal error predictions. Critically, the digital twin system for thermal error compensation is constructed to improve the system's real-time performance. The integration of this network into the digital twin system marks a pivotal advancement in thermal error compensation. Our empirical results underscore the system's remarkable robustness and superior predictive accuracy, demonstrating a significant reduction in positioning and machining errors (over 90% and 80% respectively) even with constrained thermal data inputs. These advancements not only delineate a substantial leap in predictive accuracy but also underscore our contribution to reducing operational costs and enhancing the efficacy of machine tools.