• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.558-561
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• 2000

There are many types of seam tracking methods actually used in industrial spot. Lately, Non-contact sensor technics are mostly used because non-contact sensor has more advantage than contact sensor in many parts. This paper also concerned about fiber sensor a kind of non-contact sensor. X-Y robot and fiber sensor scan the seam tracking to be weld. After scanning, X-Y robot moves the first working point of being scanned and welding starts automatically. It makes an experiment on some types of Seam tracking like straight line tracking, leaned line tracking and curved line tracking to confirm how well the fibers sensor tracks the seam pass to be weld. And the seam pass that had been tracked was welded by inverter CO2 welding machine.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.208-214
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• 2001

In this study, we constructed a visual sensor system for weld seam tracking in real time in GMA welding. A sensor part consists of a CCD camera, a band-pass filter, a diode laser system with a cylindrical lens, and a vision board for inter frame process. We used a commercialized robot system which includes a GMA welding machine. To extract the weld seam we used a inter frame process in vision board from that we could remove the noise due to the spatters and fume in the image. Since the image was very reasonable by using the inter frame p개cess, we could use the simplest way to extract the weld seam from the image, such as first differential and central difference method. Also we used a moving average method to the successive position data or weld seam for reducing the data fluctuation. In experiment the developed robot system with visual sensor could be able to track a most popular weld seam. such as a fillet-joint, a V-groove, and a lap-joint of which weld seam include planar and height directional variation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1007-1013
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• 2014

In this study to improve the productivity, advantage Tandem circumferential weld process of seam tracking system was applied for the laser vision sensor. Weld geometry scanning laser vision sensor and PLC control unit are used to scan correct positioning of welding torch when the program is implemented so that it can correctly track the welding line. The welding experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of laser vision seam tracking sensor in tandem welding process. The seam tracking several experiments was to determine the reliability of the system, welding experiments relatively good quality welding bead was confirmed. Furthermore, the PLC program for seam tracking was used to confirm the validity of the application of tandem welding process according to the benefits of increased productivity, which is expected to contribute to national competitiveness.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.30-38
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• 2003

This paper proposed PID controller for torch slider and PD controller for motor right wheel. to control the motion of two-wheeled welding mobile robot with seam tracking sensor touched on welding line. The motion control is realized in the view of keeping constant welding velocity and precise seam tracking even though the target welding line is on straight line or curved line. The position and direction of the body of the mottle robot are controlled by using signal errors between seam tracking sensor and body positioning sensor attached on the end of torch slider and body side of the mobile robot, respectively. In turning motion, the body and the torch slider are controlled by using the kinematic model related with two motions of body turning and torch sliding. The straight locomotion is controlled according to eleven control patterns obtained from displacements between two sensors of the seam tracking sensor and the body positioning sensor. The effectiveness is proven through the experimental results fur lattice type welding line. Through the experimental results, we can see that the position value of the electrode end point and the welding velocity are controlled almost constantly both in straight and turning locomotion.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10b
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• pp.775-778
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• 1996

In this research, the robustness of a seam tracking for the automatic welding system is studied. The laser displacement sensor is used as a seam finder. X-Y moving table drived by ac servo motor controls the position and velocity of the torch-and-sensor part. However, dc servo motor is used to control the position and velocity of the torch. The sensor locates ahead of torch to preview the weld line, and brings about the inaccuracy on the torch tracking. To enhance the robustness on this system against the influence of disturbances and model uncertainty, H$\_$.inf./ control is applied to the angular motion of torch. The simulation shows that the tracking accuracy improved significantly. Also, experimental results give a good performance of H$\_$.inf./ control strategy to the automatic seam tracking system for the welding.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2015

In order to develop an automatic system for welding thin steel plates with curvature such as the corrugated membranes of an LNG storage tank, a rotating mechanism should be firstly designed for the torch to easily follow the weld seam with a constant distance and angle. In this study, a torch rotating mechanism consisting of three circular links, two square-type links and a torch link was proposed for automation of the welding process. A weld-seam tracking system with two axis slides and the proposed rotating mechanism was successfully simulated with a dynamic simulation software. A prototype tracking system was manufactured and a tracking test with the system was then carried out. The test results with tracking system showed that the rotating mechanism could be implemented and it was feasible to be used in automatic tracking of weld seam with curvature.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.60-67
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• 2000

In this study, we constructed a preview-sensing visual sensor system for weld seam tracking in GMA welding. The visual sensor consists of a CCD camera, a diode laser system with a cylindrical lens and a band-pass-filter to overcome the degrading of image due to spatters and/or arc light. To obtain weld joint position and edge points accurately from the captured image, we compared Hough transform method with central difference method. As a result, we present Hough transform method can more accurately extract the points and it can be applied to real time weld seam tracking. Image processing is carried out to extract straight lines that express laser stripe. After extracting the lines, weld joint position and edge points is determined by intersecting points of the lines. Although a spatter trace is in the image, it is possible to recognize the position of weld joint. Weld seam tracking was precisely implemented with adopting Hough transform method, and it is possible to track the weld seam in the case of offset angle is in the region of $\pm15^{\circ}$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.680-684
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• 1996

Welding systems cannot adapt to changes in the joint geometry which may occur due to a variety of reason. Automatic seam tracking technigue is essential to adjust the welding torch position in real time as it moves along the seam. Automatic tracking system must keep the welding speed constant unrelation to the change of the welding path. Therefore, the information from the laser displacement sensor must be converted into the input to operate the X-Y table and to rotate the desired torch position by proposed algorithm. In this research, laser displacement sensor is used as a seam finder in the automatic tracking system. X-Y moving table manipulated by ac servo motor controls the position and velocity of the torch-and-sensor part. DC motor controls the position and velocity of the torch. X-Y table controls the position of sensor and relative position of torch is controlled by dc motor which is mounted at sensor-and-torch part. Sensor is always ahead of torch to preview the weld line. From the experimental results, we could see the possiblity that the laser displacement sensor can be used as a seam finder in welding process and that the seam tracking system controlled by proposed algorithm is well done.

• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.51-56
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• 2002

The weld seam tracking system for arc welding process uses various kinds of sensors such as arc sensor, vision sensor, laser displacement sensor and so on. Among the variety of sensors available, electro-magnetic sensor is one of the most useful methods especially in sheet metal butt-joint arc welding, primarily because it is hardly affected by the intense arc light and fume generated during the welding process, and also by the surface condition of weldments. In this study, a dual-electromagnetic sensor, which utilizes the induced current variation in the sensing coil due to the eddy current variation of the metal near the sensor, was developed for arc welding of sheet metal I-butt joints. The dual-electromagnetic sensor thus detects the offset displacement of weld line from the center of sensor head even though there's no clearance in the joint. A set of design variables of the sensor was determined far the maximum sensing capability through the repeated experiments. Seam tracking is performed by correcting the position of sensor to the amount of offset displacement every sampling period. From the experimental results, the developed sensor showed the excellent capability of weld seam detection when the sensor to workpiece distance is near less than 5 ㎜, and it was revealed that the system has excellent seam tracking ability for the I-butt joint of sheet metal.

• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.23-29
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• 2001

In this study, a preview-sensing visual sensor system is constructed far weld seam tracking in GMA welding. The visual sensor system consists of a CCD camera, a diode laser system with a cylindrical lens, and a band-pass-filter to overcome the degrading of image due to spatters and/or arc light. Among the image processing methods, Hough transform method is compared with the central difference method from a viewpoint of the capability for extracting the accurate feature position. As a result, it was revealed that Hough transform method can more accurately extract the feature positions and it can be applied to real time weld seam tracking. Image processing which includes Hough transform method is carried out to extract straight lines that express laser stripe. After extracting the lines, weld joint position and edge points are determined by intersecting the lines. Even though the image includes a spatter trace on it, it is possible to recognize the position of weld joint. Weld seam tracking was precisely implemented with adopting Hough transform method, and it is possible to track the weld seam in the case of offset angle is in the region of $\pm$ $15^{\circ}$.