The rapid implementation of national major projects such as space remote sensing,deep space exploration,space strategic equipment in China,requests the highly productive manufacture of large-aperture complex optical components.A flexible grinding technique based on industrial robots is suggested to increase the processing effectiveness of the grinding stage in the optical processing process.The differences between flexible grinding technology,class rigid grinding,and conventional grinding technology are compared.And a const-volume removal characteristic model for flexible grinding is presented and proven.Investigation is done into the connections between dwell time,pressure,and rotational speed and grinding removal volume.In the experiment,the grinding removal efficiency of flexible grinding was 0.59mm3/s which was higher than that of conventional small tool grinding which was 8.4×10-2mm3/s.For the effective grinding of large diameter SiC space mirrors,the flexible grinding method put forward in this study offers a novel technological solution.