Design, fabrication and testing of an autonomously controlled electric discharge machine

Electric discharge machining (EDM) is the process of machining electrically conductive materials by utilizing exactly controlled sparks that happen between a cathode and a work piece within the presence of a dielectric liquid. This paper presents the design, manufacturing and working of an autonomous EDM which is compact, stable and safer in use. The actuators and power supply switching is controlled using an Arduino which makes decision based on inputs from five different sensors — fire sensor, lever sensor, temperature sensor, servo position sensor and limit switch. Constant monitoring is done through a graphical user interface built in Matlab.