In this study, based on a three-dimensional transient temperature field simulation model considering the equivalent thermophysical properties of Al matrix and SiC particles, a cutting force decomposition model for pulsed laser-assisted cutting of SiCp/Al composites is established. At the same time, the difference between experimental value and theoretical value is less than 20 %, which proves the reliability of the cutting force model.

To improve the control accuracy, dynamic and static characteristics of the system need to be tuned. In this paper, we use a glowworm algorithm with an improved adaptive step size to tune the parameters of a robust adaptive fuzzy controller. Finally, the workpieces of three different materials are cut with two different cutting methods. The study revealed that the surface roughness value is reduced by 20 %–32 %, which further verifies the effectiveness of the optimal controller’s parameters.