• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.122-131
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• 1995

An automatic welding equipment for thick plates requires the capability of the seam tracking of the weld line which often includes misalignment of the workpiece and variation of groove width. In this study, an automatic welding equipment and control algorithms based on the arc sensor were proposed for the GMA welding of thick plates which had misalignment and gap variation. The developed system being constituted with 5 axis can be automatically controlled by computer and also automnatically set the welding conditions such as welding current, and voltage. The proposed algorithms for the seam tracking in multi-pass welding of the thick plates were constituted as follows : the detection of weaving-end point for findng the variation of groove width, the control of welding velocity for acquiring a constant thickness deposition of weld metal, and the calculation of groove width and height of an arbitrary pass in the multi-pass weld. As results of the application of the system, it was revealed that the system had a good capability in seam tracking and made an excellent weld quality in V groove butt joint.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.43-49
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• 2004

In this study, a visual sensor system which can detect I-butt weld joint with height variation and includes a seam tracking algorithm was investigated. Three-dimensional position of an object can be acquired by using the method of distance measurement, i.e., an optical trigonometry which results from the spatial relations between the camera, the object and the structured light by a visible laser. Effects of laser intensity and iris number for the image quality as well as object material were investigated for the optical system design. For the image processing, a region of interest is defined from the whole image and a line image of laser is drew by using the gray level difference in the image. From the drew laser line, the weld joint can be recognized in searching the biggest point position calculated from the central difference method. Through a series of welding experiments, a good tracking performance was confirmed under GMA welding.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.44-54
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• 1998

In this study a new arc sensor algorithm for automatic weld seam tracking was proposed, which uses the relative welding current variation according to the tip-to-workpiece distance in GMA welding. Since the new developed arc sensor algorithm is not sensitive to unstable factors of arc signal, the system is expected to get rid of the problems of already existing arc sensor system which include the difficulty of modeling the process for various welding conditions and limitation of application to thick plate welding. Thus the system is applicable not only to thick plate welding but also to thin plate welding. To implement the new arc sensor algorithm the system parameters which include sampling time, averaging range, weighting factor of moving averaging, basic compensation time, and basic compensation distance were determined by experimental analysis. Consequently this system has shown the successful tracking capability for the various welding conditions.

• 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.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.17-23
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• 2010

It is very important to track a complicate weld seam for the welding automation. Very recently, laser vision sensor becomes a useful sensing tool to find the seams. Until now, however studies of welding automation using a laser vision sensor, focused on either image processing or feature recognition from CCD camera. Even though it is possible to use a simple algorithm for tracking a simple seam, it is extremely difficult to develop a seam-tracking algorithm when the seam is more complex. To overcome these difficulties, this study introduces a simulation system to develop the seam tracking algorithm. This method was verified experimentally to reduce the time and effort to develop the seam tracking algorithm, and to implement the sensing device.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.83-97
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• 1992

A new approach, to seam tracking for robotic are welding is proposed. In this approach, the weld model is a snapshot image and the acquired image is analyzed and compared to the welding database which contains CAD data, weld positions, weld parameters, etc. This paper presents a fast and robust algorithm for the Hough Transform. This modified Hough Transform(MHT) algorithm uses the least-squares regression analysis method in order to approximate the edge lines more precisely, and leads to a significant reduction in both computation and storage. In comparison with the conventional seam tracking methods, this new approach has the advantages of low cost, continuous welding, and various type welding.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 2000

An arc sensor system to compensate positional errors was developed on the foundation of sensor interface system to make use of the on-line shift function of industrial welding robot. Investigating the on-line shift function, we examine the quantitative relationship between the deviation from programmed path and the correction data transferred from personal computer to robot controller. The number of input parameters for weld seam tracking can be reduced by making the relationship between the deviation and the correction data during half weaving be the function of only cross time. With the results of weld seam tracking for the butt joint with V-groove and fillet joint of sheet metal, good performance was implemented. By developing the sensor interface system to compensate the positional errors, industrial welding robot can be expected to contribute to the promotion of welding automation.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.2701-2706
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• 2003

This paper describes weld seam tracking and error compensation methods of automatic plasma arc welding system designed for the corrugation panel that consists of a linear section and a curved section with various curvatures. Realizing automatic welding system, we are faced with two problems. One is a precise seam tracking and the other is an arc length control. Due to the complexity of the panel shape, it is difficult to find a seam and operate a torch manually in the welding process. So, laser vision sensor for seam tracking is equipped for sensing the seam position and controlling the height of a torch automatically. To attain more precise measurement of an arc length, we measure the 3D shape of the panel and analyze error factors according to the various panel states and caused errors are predicted through the welding process. Using that result, compensation algorithm is added to that of arc length control and real time error compensation is achieved. The result shows that these two methods work effectively.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1506-1511
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• 2003

This paper describes an automatic weld seam tracking method of plasma arc welding system designed for the corrugation panel that consists of a linear section and a curved section with various curvatures. Due to the complexity of the panel shape, it is difficult to find a seam and operate a torch manually in the welding process. So, the laser vision sensor for seam tracking is designed for sensing the seam position and controlling a torch automatically. To achieve precise seam tracking, the design of sensor head, image simulation, and calibration are carried out. Through a series of experiment result, compensation algorithm is added and real time error compensation is achieved. The experiment result shows that this vision sensor works effectively. It will provide more precise welding performance and convenience to the operator.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.129-140
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• 1998

An interface system was developed to offer the welding capability to a robot controller which had not any embedded function for arc welding before, and also an arc sensor algorithm was proposed for weld seam tracking of the welding robot. For the interface system between the robot controller and welding equipments, data communication software and interface connections were composed. The interface system was mae to correspond welding condition, correction data, operation sequence and current status with the robot controller by mutual had shaking and digital signal transfer. Graphic user interface program developed under the environment of windows made it easy to monitor data communication and operation status, and to control welding and sensing sequence. Arc sensing algorithm proposed in this study to compensate torch position error was based on a fuzzy logic with the variables of current difference and current differenced change at torch weaving extremities. The developed interface system could be successfully implemented in between welding equipments and the robot controller, and showed normal status and exact function in data and signal communication between the systems. The whole robot welding system was then examined to verify its welding and seam tracking capabilities in horizontal fillet, vertical fillet, and 3-dimensional fillet weldment. The experiments revealed sound weld bead shapes and also good seam tracing results.