Collision-free Path Planning for Remote Laser Welding

The paper proposes algorithms for collision-free path planning in robotic Remote Laser Welding (RLW), using collision detection on a triangle mesh representation of the moving objects and a path planning algorithm based on a classical A∗ search, both highly specialized to the needs of RLW. The algorithms depart from an optimized task sequence and an initial, potentially colliding rough-cut path. The algorithms modify this path to eliminate all collisions while preserving the stitch sequence and minimizing the cycle time. The approach is validated in computational experiments on real industrial data involving the welding of a car front door.