Al alloy weld pool control of welding robot with passive vision

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe work aimed to control the Al alloy welding penetration through the passive vision for welding robot.

Design/methodology/approach

First a passive vision system was established. The system can capture the Al alloy welding image. Based on the analysis of the characteristic of the welding image, the composite edge detectors were developed to recognize the shape of the weld seam and the weld pool. To realize the automatic control of the Al alloy‐weld process, the relation between the welding parameter and the quality of the weld appearance was established through the random welding experiment. The wire feed was chosen with PID controller adjusting the wire feed rate according to the weld gap variation.

Findings

This paper finds that the passive vision system can be captured the clear weld seam and weld pool image simultaneously. the method of composite edge detectors can be effectively and accurately recognize the weld seam edges. The wire feed rate controller ensured the welding robot to adjust the wire feed rate according to the gap variation.

Research limitations/implications

This system has been applied to the industrial welding robot production.

Originality/value

The weld seam and weld pool image can be simultaneously captured by the passive vision system. The composite edge detectors have been developed for the passive vision method. The controller has been set up for Al alloy welding process based on the neural network.

Citation

Kong, M. and Chen, S. (2009), "Al alloy weld pool control of welding robot with passive vision", Sensor Review, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 28-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/02602280910926733