WATCH OUTER CASE POLISHING APPARATUS AND GENERAL PURPOSE POLISHING APPARATUS

A polishing apparatus comprises a polishing member for polishing a workpiece and a manipulator for manipulating the workpiece and having a base disposed at a coordinate origin of a base coordinate system. The polishing member and workpiece define therebetween a contact surface having a contact surface coordinate system relative to an initial coordinate system defined when the polishing member and the workpiece initially contact one another at the contact surface but before a force is exerted on the contact surface to polish the workpiece. A first control device successively updates a position and attitude of the contact surface coordinator system with respect to the initial coordinate system on the basis of a deviation between preselected values of force and moment acting on the workpiece and detected values of force and moment acting at the contact surface between the polishing member and the workpiece when a force is exerted on the contact surface to polish the workpiece. A second control device successively updates a position and attitude of the contact surface coordinate system with respect to a coordinate system corresponding to the workpiece by changing a position and attitude of the workpiece. The calculating device calculates a position and attitude of the manipulator on the basis of the updated results of the first and second control devices and a position and attitude of the initial coordinate system with respect to the base coordinate system. The driving device drives the manipulator to manipulate the workpiece on the basis of the calculation results of the calculating device.