AR-assisted robot welding programming

Robotic welding demands high accuracy and precision.However,robot programming is often a tedious and time-consuming process that requires expert knowledge.This paper presents an augmented reality assisted robot welding task programming(ARWP)system using a user-friendly augmented reality(AR)interface that simplifies and speeds up the programming of robotic welding tasks.The ARWP system makes the programming of robot welding tasks more user-friendly and reduces the need for trained programmers and expertise in specific robotic systems.The AR interface simplifies the definition of a welding path as well as the welding gun orientation,and the system;the system can locate the welding seam of a workpiece quickly and generate a viable welding path based on the user input.The developed system is integrated with the touch-sensing capability of welding robots in order to locate the welding path accurately based on the user input,for fillet welding.The system is applicable to other welding processes and methods of seam localization.The system implementation is described and evaluated with a case study.

Haptic and visual augmented reality interface for programming welding robots

It is a challenging task for operators to program a remote robot for welding manipulation depending only on the visual information from the remote site. This paper proposes an intuitive user interface for programming welding robots remotely using augmented reality （AR） with haptic feedback. The proposed system uses a depth camera to reconstruct the surfaces of workpieces. A haptic input device is used to allow users to define welding paths along these surfaces. An AR user interface is developed to allow users to visualize and adjust the orientation of the welding torch. Compared with the traditional robotic welding path programming methods which rely on prior CAD models or contact between the robot end-effector and the workpiece, this proposed approach allows for fast and intuitive remote robotic welding path programming with- out prior knowledge of CAD models of the workpieces. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is a user-friendly interface and can assist users in obtaining an accurate welding path.

A Path Planning Method for Robotic Belt Surface Grinding

The flexible contact and machining with wide strip are two prominent advantages for the robotic belt grinding system, which can be widely used to improve the surface quality and machining efficiency while finishing the workpieces with sculptured surfaces. There lacks research on grinding path planning with the constraint of curvature. With complicated contact between the contact wheel and the workpiece, the grinding paths for robot can be obtained by the theory of contact kinematics. The grinding process must satisfy the universal demands of the belt grinding technologies, and the most important thing is to make the contact wheel conform to the local geometrical features on the contact area. For the local surfaces with small curvature, the curve length between the neighboring cutting locations becomes longer to ensure processing efficiency. Otherwise, for the local areas with large curvature, the curve length becomes shorter to ensure machining accuracy. A series of planes are created to intersect with the target surface to be ground, and the corresponding sectional profile curves are obtained. For each curve, the curve length between the neighboring cutting points is optimized by inserting a cutter location at the local area with large curvatures. A method of generating the grinding paths including curve length spacing optimization is set up. The validity is completely approved by the off-line simulation, and during the grinding experiments with the method, the quality of surface is improved. The path planning method provides a theoretical support for the smooth and accuracy path of robotic surface grinding.