Seam Tracking Technology for Hyperbaric Underwater Welding

Automatic weld seam tracking technology to be used in hyperbaric underwater damaged pipeline repair welding is much more important, because of poor bevel preparation and severe working condition. A weld seam tracking system based on digital signal processing（DSP） passive light weld image processing technology has been established. A convenient charge coupled device（CCD） camera system was used in the high pressure environment with the help of an aperture and focus altering mechanism to guarantee overall image visibility in the scope of pressure below 0.7 MPa. The system can be used in the hyperbaric environment to pick up the real welding image of both the welding arc and the welding pool. The newly developed DSP technology was adopted to achieve the goal of system real time characteristics. An effective weld groove edge recognition technique including narrow interesting window opening, middle value wave filtering, Sobel operator weld edge detecting and edge searching in a defined narrow area was proposed to remove the guide error and system accuracy was ensured. The results of tracking simulation and real tracking application with arc striking have proved the validity and the accuracy of the mentioned system and the image processing method.

Seam Tracking and Visual Control for Robotic Arc Welding Based on Structured Light Stereovision

A real-time arc welding robot visual control system based on a local network with a multi-level hierarchy is developed in this paper. It consists of an intelligence and human-machine interface level, a motion planning level, a motion control level and a servo control level. The last three levels form a local real-time open robot controller, which realizes motion planning and motion control of a robot. A camera calibration method based on the relative movement of the end-effector connected to a robot is proposed and a method for tracking weld seam based on the structured light stereovision is provided. Combining the parameters of the cameras and laser plane, three groups of position values in Cartesian space are obtained for each feature point in a stripe projected on the weld seam. The accurate three-dimensional position of the edge points in the weld seam can be calculated from the obtained parameters with an information fusion algorithm. By calculating the weld seam parameter from position and image data, the movement parameters of the robot used for tracking can be determined. A swing welding experiment of type V groove weld is successfully conducted, the results of which show that the system has high resolution seam tracking in real-time, and works stably and efficiently.

The characteristics of welding currents in a rotating arc leadtandem GMAW process and the weld-seam tracking

Tandem gas metal arc welding （ T-GMAW） process shows a high deposition rate that up to three times o f the single electrode GMAW, so the welding speed could be significantly increased in this process. However, the majority o f this process applications are based on the pre-programmed robotic welding, which does not allow them to track the seam real-time during welding. Rotating arc sensor, sensing the seam position by detecting the changing of welding currents, has been widely adopted in the automatic robot welding process. It is proposed in this paper to integrate the rotating arc sensor with a trailing torch to develop a new approach of rotating arc lead tandem gas metal arc welding （RLT-GMAW） process. The characteristics of the welding currents in the proposed new welding process were firstly studied, and then a self-turning fuzzy control seam tracking strategy was developed for the mobile robot automatic welding. The experimental results showed that the proposed RLT-GMAW process had an excellent seam tracking performance and high welding deposition rate. Even if there were some electromagnetic interactions between the two arcs, the deviation of the welding seam could also be reflected by the fluctuation of the welding currents on the leading arc once the correct welding parameters were selected. Based on the detected deviation, the welding tracking experiments showed that the proposed self-turning fuzzy controller had a good performance for the RLT-GMAW process seam tracking.

Seam-tracking based on dynamic trajectory planning for a mobile welding robot

A new seam-tracking method based on dynamic trajectory planning for a mobile welding robot is proposed in order to improve the response lag of the mobile robot and the high frequency oscillation in seam-tracking.By using a front-placed laser-based vision sensor to dynamically extract the location of the weld seam in front of torch,the trend and direction of the weld line is roughly obtained.The robot system autonomously and dynamically performs trajectory planning based on the isometric approximation model.Arc sensor technology is applied to detect the offset during welding process in real time.The dynamic compensation of the weld path is done in combination with the control of the mobile robot and the executive body installed on it.Simulated and experimental results demonstrate that the method effectively increases the stability of welding speed and smoothness of the weld track,and hence the weld formation in curves and corners is improved.

Study of image processing for V-shape groove and robotic weld seam tracking based on laser vision

Single-stripe laser was applied to acquire V-shape groove contour information. Most of arc light and splash noise was removed and stripe laser image was kept by wavelet transform. Half-threshold algorithm was used for image segmentation and stripe laser image was gotten after refining. Weld seam center position was identified and extracted by extreme curvature corner detection method. The location of torch was detected to accord the frequency of computer program with robot program and serial communication program. The tracking experiments of sidelong, reflex and curve weld line show that the system can meet the demand of the tracking precision under normal welding conditions.

Seam tracking control for mobile welding robot based on vision sensor

To solve the seam tracking problem of mobile welding robot,a new controller based on the dynamics of mobile welding robot was designed using the method of backstepping kinematics into dynamics.A self-turning fuzzy controller and a fuzzy-Gaussian neural network(FGNN) controller were designed to complete coordinately controlling of cross-slider and wheels.The fuzzy-neural control algorithm was described by applying the Gaussian function and back propagation(BP) learning rule was used to tune the membership function in real time by applying the FGNN controller.To make the tracking more quickly and smoothly,the neural network controller based on dynamic model was designed,which utilized self-learning and self-adaptive ability of the neural network to deal with the partial uncertainty and the disturbances of the parameters of the robot dynamic model and real-time compensate the dynamics coupling.The results show that the selected control input torques make the system globally and asymptotically stable based on the Lyapunov function selected out;the accuracy of the proposed controller tracing is within ±0.4 mm and can satisfy the requirements of practical welding project.

RECALLABLE TRACKING TECHNIQUE FOR TOP WELD BEADS OF NARROW GAP SUBMERGED ARC WELDING

According to the wire and nozzle movement track in groove, the movement parameters of wire were memorized and recalled for the following top welds by using a single chip computer. In this paper, it was also discussed that the design problems of correcting deviation of wire movement track in narrow gap submerged arc welding process must be noticed in order to obtain the sound welding result.

Visual Tracking System for Welding Seams

To track the narrow butt welding seams in container manufacture, a visual tracking system based on smart camera is proposed in this paper. A smart camera is used as the sensor to detect the welding seam. The feature extraction algorithm is designed with the consideration of the characteristics of the smart caraera, which is used to compute the error between the welding torch and the welding seam. Visual control system based on image is preseated, which employs a programmable controller to control a stepper motor to eliminate the tracking error detected by the smart camera. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the vision system.

Longitudinal forces of continuously welded track on high-speed railway cable-stayed bridge considering impact of adjacent bridges

A proven beam-track contact model was used to analyze the track-structure interaction of CWR (continuously welded track) on bridge. Considering the impact of adjacent bridges, the tower-cable-track-beam-pier-pile finite element model of the cable-stayed bridge was established. Taking a bridge group including 40-32m simply-supported beam and (32+80+112)m single-tower cable-stayed bridge and 17-32m simply-supported beam on the Kunming-Shanghai high-speed railway as an example, the characteristics of CWR longitudinal force on the cable-stayed bridge were studied. It is shown that adjacent bridges must be considered in the calculation of the track expansion force and bending force on cable-stayed bridge. When the span amount of adjacent bridges is too numerous, it can be simplified as six spans; the fixed bearing of adjacent simply-supported beams should be placed on the side near the cable-stayed bridge; the track expansion device should be set at the bridge tower to reduce the track force near the bridge abutment.

Study on contactless ultrasonic sensor and seam tracking

The sensitivity of contactless ultrasonic sensor is improved from 3.3% to 26% through acoustic and electric matching technique in this paper.Along dual crest lines auto seam tracking is firstly realized with contactless ultrasonic sensing.The focused acoustic lens is accurately designed, and a sonic beam with 0.5 mm in diameter is achieved. By means of software and hardware technique the accuracy of seam tracking with ultrasonic sensing is 0.5 mm in lateral direction and 0.2 mm in longitudinal direction respectively.

A machine vision approach to seam tracking in real-time in PAW of large-diameter stainless steel tube

Manual monitoring and seam tracking through watching weld pool images in real-time, by naked eyes or by industrial TV, are experience-depended, subjective, labor intensive, and sometimes biased. So it is necessary to realize the automation of computer-aided seam tracking. A PAW (plasma arc welding) seam tracking system was developed, which senses the molten pool and the seam in one frame by a vision sensor, and then detects the seam deviation to adjust the work piece motion adaptively to the seam position sensed by vision sensor. A novel molten pool area image-processing algorithm based on machine vision was proposed. The algorithm processes each image at the speed of 20 frames/second in real-time to extract three feature variables to get the seam deviation. It is proved experimentally that the algorithm is very fast and effective. Issues related to the algorithm are also discussed.

Longitudinal force in continuously welded rail on long-span tied arch continuous bridge carrying multiple tracks

Considering arch rib, lateral brace, suspender, girder, pier and track position, the model for the interaction between long-span tied arch continuous bridge and multiple tracks was established by using steel-concrete composite section beam element to simulate concrete-filled steel tube(CFST) arch rib, using the beam element with rigid arm to simulate the prestressed concrete girder and using nonlinear bar element to simulate longitudinal constraint between track and bridge. Taking a(77+3×156.8+77) m tied arch continuous bridge with four tracks on the Harbin-Qiqihar Passenger Dedicated Line as an example, the arrangement of continuously welded rail(CWR) was explored. The longitudinal force in CWR on the tied arch continuous bridge, the pier top horizontal force and torque due to the unbalance load case, were analyzed under the action of temperature, vertical live load, train braking and wind load.Studies show that, it can significantly reduce track displacement to set the track expansion devices at main span arch springing on both sides; the track stress due to arch temperature variation can reach 40.8 MPa; the track stress, pier top horizontal force and torque are related to the number of loaded tracks and train running direction, and the bending force applied to unloaded track is close to the loaded track, while the braking force applied to unloaded track is 1/4 to 1/2 of the loaded track; the longitudinal force of track due to the wind load is up to 12.4 MPa, which should be considered.

Methodology to Evaluate Fatigue Damage of High-Speed Train Welded Bogie Frames Based on On-Track Dynamic Stress Test Data

The current method of estimating the fatigue life of railway structures is to calculating the equivalent stress amplitude based on the measured stress data. However, the random of the measured data is not considered. In this paper, a new method was established to compute the equivalent stress amplitude to evaluate the fatigue damage based on the measurable randomness, since the equivalent stress is the key parameter for assessment of structure fatigue life and load derivation. The equivalent stress amplitude of a high-speed train welded bogie frame was found to obey normal distribution under uniform operation route that verified by on-track dynamic stress data, and the proposed model is, in effect, an improved version of the mathematical model used to calculate the equivalent stress amplitude. The data of a long-term, on-track dynamic stress test program was analyzed to find that the normal distribution parameters of equivalent stress amplitude values differ across different operation route. Thus, the fatigue damage of the high-speed train welded bogie frame can be evaluated by the proposed method if the running schedule of the train is known a priori. The results also showed that the equivalent stress amplitude of the region connected to the power system is more random than in other regions of the bogie frame.

Stability issues of the continuous welded rail track on the concrete sleepers on the curves with radius R ≤ 300 m

This paper describes the economic and technological benefits of installing continuous welded rail （CWR） track on sharp （radius≤300 m） railway curves. A new form of prestressed concrete sleepers developed by the V. Lazaryan Dniprope- trovsk National University of Railway Transport is shown to improve the lateral shift resistance of CWR track in sharp curves and the use of anchor sleepers on tangents is shown to make it possible to lower the fastening temperature of the CWR track in order to increase the rail lifespan.

公铁两用大跨度斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系变形适应性研究

高速铁路大跨度斜拉桥结构变形受其复杂服役环境影响显著,而无砟轨道对工后变形的调整能力有限,因此大跨度斜拉桥的复杂变形条件将直接影响其上无砟轨道结构的适应性。以沪渝蓉高铁长江北支公铁两用大跨度斜拉桥应用无砟轨道为工程背景,建立无砟轨道-大跨度斜拉桥一体化精细空间有限元模型,分析铁路、公路以及温度等多种荷载联合作用下大跨度斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系平顺性、无缝线路稳定性和无砟轨道层间变形协调性,从而对大跨度公铁两用钢桁梁斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系变形适应性开展深入研究。结果表明:在运营荷载及温度荷载最不利组合作用下,大跨度斜拉桥主梁线形平顺,变形平缓,桥梁整体刚度较好,桥上无砟轨道几何形位可以满足静态验收标准;大跨度斜拉桥上无缝线路的强度和稳定性满足要求,扣件工作性能良好,钢轨伸缩调节器的设置可有效释放梁端钢轨的纵向应力;无砟轨道层间设置橡胶隔离层且不跨主梁桁架节间的布置方式可提高大跨度斜拉桥上无砟轨道的变形协调性能,使得桥上无砟轨道层间始终处于受压状态,达到“隔而不离”的桥上轨道层间理想服役状态;大跨度公铁两用钢桁梁斜拉桥-无砟轨道体系变形适应性良好。本文研究成果可为公铁两用大跨度钢桁梁斜拉桥上无砟轨道的应用提供技术参考。

考虑加载历史的小半径曲线桥梁梁轨相互作用分析

目前,大部分考虑加载历史的梁轨相互作用研究都集中在直线桥梁上,针对曲线桥梁,尤其是小半径曲线桥梁,梁轨相互作用的研究相对较少。采用理想弹塑性滞回阻力模型模拟扣件纵向阻力,运用有限元软件,建立以城东特大桥为研究对象的钢轨-桥梁-墩台三维有限元空间力学计算模型,研究曲线半径对于梁轨相互作用的影响,探究了多荷载耦合作用、往复荷载作用以及循环荷载作用下考虑加载历史效应的曲线桥梁梁轨相互作用情况,并提出“拉力百分比”以及“压力百分比”的概念以便分析曲线半径对传统线性叠加法误差的影响。结果表明,曲线桥梁中梁轨纵、横向相互作用分别与曲线半径成正、反比,相关数据改变幅度与曲线半径成反比且当曲线半径超过800 m时基本收敛,此时可采用“以直代曲”的简化算法;曲线半径对于横向梁轨相互作用影响程度大于纵向,相较于挠曲、制动工况,伸缩工况受曲线半径影响更加显著;多荷载耦合作用下,采用传统线性叠加法相较于考虑加载历史更为保守且温度荷载起主要贡献;考虑加载历史时钢轨在往复荷载作用下会产生不可忽视的残余内力,且在循环荷载作用下将会产生收敛于第1次往复荷载下的残余内力,这是扣件纵向阻力的弹塑性滞回特性决定的;线性叠加法误差与曲线半径具有相关性,相较于挠曲、制动工况,伸缩工况下对其更为敏感。研究结果可为考虑加载历史下曲线桥梁结构设计提供参考。

基于电流多特征融合的窄间隙P-GMAW摆动电弧传感焊缝跟踪方法

电弧传感是实现窄间隙焊接焊缝跟踪的主要方式之一。针对电弧传感稳定性差、可靠性低的问题,提出融合摆动周期内电流信息的多个统计学特征进行偏差提取的方法,克服单一数据特征容易受到电弧稳定性影响、导致传感精度下降的问题。首先,提取电流信号的多个时域特征,计算特征矩阵与偏差矢量相关性;然后,取相关性高的特征用主成分分析的方法进行融合,取前两个主成分作为观测数据;最后,基于多分类的支持向量机模型对其进行分类试验。试验结果表明最大误差为0.2 mm,0.1 mm以内的误差占93.75%。该方法对比传统方法精度有所提升,对比神经网络方法,所用训练样本少,训练过程更加简单。

Influence of the Randomness of Longitudinal Resistance of Ballast Bed on Track-Bridge Interaction

To get the influence of the randomness of longitudinal resistance of ballast bed (LRBB) on track-bridge interaction, the statistical law of LRBB was studied with existing test data and the Shapiro-Wilk test. Based on the principle of track-bridge interaction, a rail-sleeper-bridge-pier integrated simulation model that could consider the randomness of LRBB was established. Taking a continuous beam bridge for the heavy-haul railway as an example, the effect of the randomness of LRBB on the mechanical behavior of continuous welded rail (CWR) on bridges under typical conditions was carefully examined with a random sampling method and the simulation model. The results show that the LRBB corresponding sleeper displacement of 2 mm obeys a normal distribution. When the randomness of LRBB is considered, the amplitudes of rail expansion force, rail bending force, rail braking force and rail broken gap all follow normal distribution. As the standard deviations of the four indexes are small, which indicates the randomness of LRBB has little effect on track-bridge interaction. The distributions of the four indexes make it possible to design CWR on bridges with the limit state method.

超声焊接全状态频率跟踪算法

超声金属焊接负载重且变化剧烈,易导致换能器出现无阻性点和电源频率误跟踪。基于梅森等效模型,提出一种能同时计算出谐振频率与反谐振频率,避免误跟踪的全状态频率跟踪算法。存在阻性点时,利用3个不同发波频率及其对应的相位差,算出跟踪目标频率;当换能器处于无阻性点状态时,把跟踪目标变为相位差最小点,从而实现全状态频率跟踪。通过仿真软件对算法进行仿真,算法能有效避免误跟踪。焊接试验结果表明,能较易实现谐振频率和反谐振频率的频率跟踪,在无阻性点的工况下焊接过程平稳。

市域(郊)铁路桥上无缝道岔至梁缝距离研究

市域(郊)铁路桥梁占比高,结合车站配线设计,道岔不可避免需要设置在高架站前后的道岔连续梁上。考虑市域(郊)铁路采用的道岔型号、桥梁结构及设计荷载与高速铁路明显不同,桥上无缝道岔至梁缝距离研究相对缺乏。由于市域(郊)铁路设计速度比地铁高,轮轨作用力大,轮轨之间的振动和冲击对周围环境影响大,因此,桥上道岔采用跨区间无缝线路技术。基于“道岔-桥梁”相互作用原理,建立“岔-板-梁-墩”一体化12号无砟轨道、无缝道岔有限元模型,对常用的单开道岔、4.3 m线间距渡线道岔至梁缝距离开展计算分析并研究其影响规律,以道岔钢轨强度、尖轨尖端位移值、心轨尖端位移值、转辙机处基本轨与桥梁相对位移值及断缝值为限值条件,提出市域(郊)铁路桥上无缝道岔至梁缝合理距离限值。研究结果表明:桥上无缝道岔始终端距梁缝距离越大,尖轨尖端位移、心轨尖端位移和转辙机处基本轨与桥梁相对位移明显减小,道岔钢轨伸缩力和制动力计算结果差异不大;温暖地区道岔始端、终端至梁缝距离不小于10 m,寒冷地区道岔始端、终端至梁缝距离不小于18 m,相关研究成果纳入《市域(郊)铁路设计规范》。