Automating the welding process for the shipbuilding industry is very challenging and important, as this industry relies heavily on quality welds. Conventional robotic welding systems are seldom used because the welding tasks in shipyards are characterised by non-standardised workpieces which are large but small in batch sizes. Furthermore, geometries and locations of the workpieces are uncertai...

Laser welding has a large potential for the production of tailor welded blanks in the automotive industry, due to the low heat input and deep penetration. However, due to the small laser spot and melt pool, laser-based welding processes in general have a low tolerance for seam gaps. In this paper, five laserbased welding techniques are compared for their gap bridging capabilities: single-spot l...

Although robotics based flexible automation is an intriguing prospect for small to median enterprises in the era of the global competition, the complexity of programming remains one of the major hurdles limiting its applications. This paper presents an automated offline programming (AOLP) method to address this issue. AOLP is software that automatically plans and programs for a robotic welding ...

Stud welding is a process used in the construction industry to anchor concrete slabs to underlying steel substructures . This process is highly repetitive and, thus, a good candidate for automation. A robotic device, the Studmaster , has been developed which will automate stud welding currently done in the construction of industrial buildings. This machine, currently controlled by a microcomput...

Automation of welding process in shipyard is ultimately necessary, since welding site is spatially enclosed by jloors and girders, and therefore welding operators are exposed to hostile working conditions. To solve this problem, recently a robotic welding system f o r closed block assembly has been developed. For complete autonomy, this system needs a sensor system for the weld seam tracking an...

In this paper, we propose a fuzzy-servoing controller method for automatic welding. The proposed method uses a vision based arc tracking to find the initial points of the weld seam and to track them without a prior knowledge. Due to a serious melt down in the weld pool during the welding process, the method requires to control the welding torch in two directions, up-down and left-right directio...

Nowadays industrialized countries with their high labor costs have to rely on production automation to keep their competitive advantage. One of the most flexible and powerful automation technology available today is industrial robotics. Equipped with the right tool, standardized industrial robots can perform numerous production tasks. Since acquisition and programming of an industrial robot are...