A Study on Arc Force Sensor for a Robotic Welding Control System

This paper presents investigation of an arc force sensor for a robotic welding control system. Arc force sensor is employed in this research to monitor the bead geometry of the arc welding process. Arc force sensor mounted at the end of the robot wrist was employed to measure the arc force applied to the weld. Experimental configuration for measurement of arc force was used to quantify the changes in the arc force distributions of the plate being welded. A relationship between the bead dimension and the arc force distributions was established. The sensor information was used to establish a relationship between welding current and arc force. Arc force sensor have shown to be one of the most sophisticated technique to monitor perturbations that occurred during robotic arc welding process.