Study on intelligent welding mobile robot with the function of auto-searching weld line

The development of welding robots suitable for specially unstructured working enviroments has been become an important development direction of industrial robot application because large-scale welding structures have been used more and more widely in modern industry. In this paper, an intelligent mobile robot for welding of ship deck with the function of autosearching weld line was presented. A wheeled motion mechanism and a cross adjustment slider are used for the welding robot body. A sensing system based on laser-PSD （position sensitive detector） displacement sensor was developed to obtain two dimensional deviation signals during seam tracking. A full-digital control system based on DSP and CPLD has also been realized to implement complex and high-performance control algorithms. Furthermore, the system has still the function of auto-searching weld line according to the characteristics information of weld groove and adjusting posture itself to the desired status preparing for welding. The experiment of auto-searching welding line shows that the robot has high tracing accuracy, and can satisfy the requirement of practical welding project.     

Study on DC welding parameters of Al-alloy shaping based on arc-welding robot

The Al-alloy arc-welding shaping system based on arc-welding robot is established, and the Al-alloy shaping manufacture is realized with the DC （direct current） gas metal arc welding （GMAW）. The research indicates that the metal transfer type of DC GMA W, heat input and the initial temperature of the workpiece greatly affect the Al-alloy shaping based on arc welding robot. On the penetration, the weld width and the reinforcement, the influence of welding parameters is analyzed by generalized regression neural network （GRNN） fitting.     

Welding deviation detection method based on weld pool image contour features

Automatic on-line detection of welding deviation based on machine vision is one of the key technologies of arc welding robot tracking welding,in which obtaining high quality weld pool image and accurate welding deviation detection algorithm are two important steps of tracking welding.Through the research and analysis of the weld pool image of gas metal arc welding(GMAW),it was found that the weld pool contains abundant welding information.First,the average gray value of the weld pool image can reflect the interference degree of arc to weld pool image and the heat input of welding process.Secondly,the tip of the weld pool image contour can reflect the center of the groove gap.Finally,the horizontal distance between the center coordinate of the wire contour and the tip coordinate of the weld pool image contour can reflect the welding deviation.On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of weld pool image,this paper proposes a new method of weld seam deviation detection,which includes the collection of weld pool image,image preprocessing,contour extraction and deviation calculation.The results of the tests and analyses showed that the maximum error of the on-line welding deviation obtained was about 2 pixels(0.17 mm) when the welding speed was ≤60 cm/min,and the algorithm was stable enough to meet the requirements of real-time deviation detection for I-groove butt welding.The method can be applied to the on-line automatic welding deviation detection of arc welding robot.     

Mathematical modeling and simulation application for a wheeled mobile robot applied on pipe welding

A geometric model was built to represent the position relation of a wheeled mobile robot relative to a pipe. The relationship between the deviation of falling off for the robot and the curvature of the pipe was formulated quantitatively. Based on the relationship, a mathematical model was derived and a fuzzy control algorithm for the robot was developed. Simulations were carried out to confirm the dynamic index and the validity of the mathematical model of the fuzzy control algorithm for seam tracking of pipe welding. Experiments for pipe welding with the mobile robot were also carried out to verify the algorithm, and the results showed that the seam has a good quality with a preferable appearance of weld.     

Underwater robot local dry welding system

To satisfy the demand for good quality underwater welding and maintenance of nuclear power stations, a set of local dry automatic welding systems has been developed. These systems were based on an underwater robot that consisted of a special high-power underwater welding power supply, diving wire feeder, mini drain cap, welding robot, and special underwater welding torch. With a digital signal controller microprocessor as its core and combined with a dual inverter topology, the welding power supply was characterized by full-digital construction and multi-waveform flexible output. A compact diving wire feeding device was designed, based on the armature voltage negative feedback and high-frequency chopping pulse width modulation.This device yielded a high-efficiency seal of the driving motor with the help of dynamic and static sealing technology. To overcome the difficulty of local protection and deslagging in the welding area, a mini drain cap (with a duplexgas structure) based on the principle of the convergent nozzle was designed. The practical tests and the underwater welding experiments revealed that the underwater robotic local dry welding system is quite feasible. That is, the system could strike the arc stably and reliably in the shallow water environment, and formed beautiful welding seams.     

A method of initial welding robot based onposition guiding for arc welding visual servo control

In order to solve the visual guiding task of initial welding position for arc welding robot, this paper presents a practice-prone image-based visual servo control strategy without calibration, and we perform validating experiments on a nine-DOF arc welding robot system. Experimental results illustrate presented method has the function to fulfill the task of welding robot initial positioning with certain anti-jamming ability. This method provides a basis for guiding welding gun to initial welding pose with real typical seam‘ s image properties to replace flag block properties, and is a significant exploit to realize visual guiding of initial welding position and seam tracing in robot welding system.     

Remanufacturing Shaping System Based on Pulsed Plasma Arc Welding

Based on the pulsed plasma arc welding(PPAW),a rapid remanufacturing shaping system,including a structured light scanning reverse engineering(RE)system,a robot system and a PPAW source system have been developed.The new rapid remanufacturing shaping system can rapidly and accurately repair the worn parts with different damaged degrees and thus extend their life cycle.In the present paper,the whole process of repairing worn parts is described.Firstly,the scanning model of a worn part is obtained by using RE system based on reconstructing approach.Compared with standard CAD model in the undamaged setting,the surface profile and the extent of damage area are obtained.Secondly,the weld repair path is designed by slicing the point cloud model of damage area.This path consists of multilayer parallel lines that produce parallel overlapped weld beads which cover the damaged area.By off-line programming techniques,the robot executable program as document format is transmitted to the robot controller for repairing worn parts.Finally,the weld repair experiments on worn steel plane plate and damaged column are performed to evaluate the remanufacturing system.     

Realizing precision pulse TIG welding with arc length control and visual image sensing based weld detection

Methods of arc length control and risual image based weld detection for precision pulse TIG welding were investigated. With a particular all-hardware circuit, arc voltage during peak current stage is sampled and integrated to indicate arc length, deviation of are length and adjusting parameters are calculated and output to drive a step motor directly.According to the features of welding image grabbed with CCD camera, a special algorithm was developed to detect the central line of weld fast and accurately. Then an application system were established, whose static arc length error is 0. 1 mm with 20 A average current and 1 mm given arc length, static detection precision of weld is 0. 01 mm, processing time of each image is less than 120 ms. Precision pulse TIG welding of some given thin stainless steel components with complicated curved surface was successfully realized.     

接管焊接机器人运动学及轨迹修正

针对接管相贯线焊接的特殊性,开发了悬挂式接管焊接四自由度机器人,介绍了机器人机械本体结构;根据关节关系,利用D-H坐标建立了机器人运动学模型;由于两接管存在的尺寸误差、加工误差和焊接受热变形的原因,为了保障焊接质量,对焊接轨迹进行示教,并采用线性插值方法修正理论轨迹;根据运动学模型,采用SemMechanic进行运动学仿真.结果表明,焊接质量完全达到规定要求.

Abstract：

According to the welding particularity on the junctions of intersecting pipe, the 4 degrees of freedom suspended welding robot was developed and mechanical structure of the body was introduced. Based on the relation of the joints, the kinematics modeling was established with the method of D-H (Denavit-Hartenberg). To overcome the size error and processing error and welding distortion, the welding track was taught in order to ensure welding quality, and then theory track was amended by the linear interpolation. According to the kinematics modeling, the simulation was carried out with SemMechanic. The results of experiments show that the welding quality meet the requirements actually.     

Specular reflection based sensing surface deformation of gas tungsten arc weld pool

A sensing system is developed to measure the weld pool boundary and pool surface deformation in gas tungsten arc welding. LaserStrobe technique is used to eliminate the strong arc light interference, and specular reflection from the pool surface is sensed to describe the relation between the deformed stripes and pool surface depression. Clear images of both the pool boundary and the deformed stripes edges are obtained during gas tungsten arc welding process, which lays foundation for real-time monitoring the pool surface depression and weld penetration.     

海底管道干式高压焊接跟踪轨迹的识别

干式高压TIG焊接法是海底输油(气)破损管道修复所用的重要的、焊接质量较高的连接方法,而自动化焊接又是解决潜水员焊接效率低下的有效途径,焊缝跟踪技术则是保证焊接过程正常进行和焊缝质量的关键技术.设计了能克服环境压力影响的CCD图像摄取装置,研究了一套焊缝跟踪路径识别算法.运用直方图均衡化方法强化坡口与非坡口的差别,增加焊缝图像的理解性.提出了以图像灰度最低值拟合成的曲线将整个图像分为两个部分的图像分解法,提高了图像识别目标的焊缝坡口部分所占的比重,有利于二值化阈值的选取.采用基于数学形态学的二值图像边界识别方法分离出焊缝边界,用Hough变换法确定坡口边线位置,最后用图像分解逆过程经合并后识别出坡口所在的位置.所提出的方法组合后抗干扰能力强,计算速度快,为进一步实现自动化焊接奠定了基础.     

固定式排水罩水下局部干法CO2气体保护焊焊接工艺优化及接头性能分析

文中在常压下利用高速摄像分析了药芯焊丝焊接的熔滴过渡特点,在压力舱内进行了DH36钢的局部干法焊接工艺参数的优化研究.在此基础上,补偿了次级电缆的压降,最终确定的海下焊接试验的参数为焊接电流175~180 A,焊机的输出电压32~34 V.利用该焊接工艺参数和自行开发研制的固定式小型排水罩,在渤海海域23 m水深进行了焊接试验,并根据AWS D3.6M:2010标准对接头进行测试分析.结果表明,焊缝内无气孔、夹渣和裂纹等缺陷,焊缝组织主要是由针状铁素体、侧板条铁素体和多边形铁素体组成,各项指标均达到AWS D3.6M:2010标准规定的A级接头要求,证明了开发的基于固定式排水罩的水下局部干法CO₂焊接技术可以应用在DH36钢海洋导管架结构的修复.     

水下湿法焊缝成形的响应曲面法建模及分析

水下湿法焊缝成形是影响水下焊接接头力学性能的重要因素.与空气中焊接相比,影响水下湿法焊缝成形的因素更复杂.在高压舱内进行不同水深湿法药芯焊丝焊接(FCAW)试验,通过响应曲面法(RSM)分别建立水下湿法焊缝的熔宽和余高与焊接参数之间的数学模型,分析了焊接电流、电弧电压和水深及其交互作用对水下湿法焊缝成形的影响.结果表明,水下湿法焊接时增大焊接电流和电弧电压都可以增大焊缝熔宽.熔宽随着水深的增大而减小,但随着水深的增大,水深对减小熔宽的作用逐渐减小.随着电流的增大,焊缝余高增大,且比电弧电压对余高的作用明显.     

高压空气环境下TIG焊接机器人关键技术

针对渤海湾石油管道的技术特点和项目内容要求,研制出一种在60～100 m深的水域完成输油管道的修补作业的水下高压全位置焊接的焊接机器人.使用PPI通信协议,控制系统实现多机工作的协调和管理,解决了对机器人的运动参数的控制和焊接参数的接管控制.采用人机交互系统,实现了对机器人的控制和对焊接状态、场景的监控,同时解决了高压环境下的无人操作自动焊接问题.在0.1 MPa,0.3 MPa,0.5 MPa和0.7 MPa压力下,进行16Mn试件的焊接工艺研究,获得良好的单面焊双面成形的效果.试验研究表明,提高焊接机器人的控制水平、采用遥控操作,是解决高压干式焊接的关键技术.     

Sensitivity model for prediction of bead geometry in underwater wet flux cored arc welding

To investigate influence of welding parameters on weld bead geometry in underwater wet flux cored arc welding (FCAW), orthogonal experiments of underwater wet FCAW were conducted in the hyperbaric chamber at water depth from 0.2 m to 60 m and mathematical models were developed by multiple curvilinear regression method from the experimental data. Sensitivity analysis was then performed to predict the bead geometry and evaluate the influence of welding parameters. The results reveal that water depth has a greater influence on bead geometry than other welding parameters when welding at a water depth less than 10 m. At a water depth deeper than 10 m, a change in travel speed affects the bead geometry more strongly than other welding parameters.     

超声辅助水下湿法焊接工艺

水下湿法焊接过程电弧不稳定,常存在熄弧、焊缝成形不均匀等问题.针对这一问题,提出了超声辅助水下湿法焊接方法,其原理是将功率超声振动与常规水下湿法焊接相结合,通过超声振动作用改善焊接电弧稳定性、焊缝成形,进而提高水下焊接接头质量.超声辅助水下湿法焊接堆焊对比试验结果表明,超声辅助水下湿法焊接显著改善了焊缝成形,能够获得尺寸均一连续的焊缝;焊接过程稳定性提高,熄弧率明显减小,熔深增大,余高减小,焊缝中心区域的显微硬度减小.     

水下焊缝自动跟踪路径的识别

为满足水下焊缝自动跟踪的需要,设计了一个视觉系统。该系统采用卤钨灯作辅助光源照射焊接电弧前方一定距离处的待焊焊缝．配合复合滤光片进行滤光,能拍摄到较为清晰的焊缝图像。提出了一个基于边缘邻域平均值的算子,用于图像的边缘增强。运用改进的遗传算法计算图像类间方差,求出最佳阈值进行图像边缘分割,能较好地保留图像弱边缘．有效地减少计算时间。对分割后的焊缝图像,提出一种基于待焊焊缝宽度等特征的识别方法,能克服焊接弧光、飞溅、水流、气泡等干扰,识别水下待焊焊缝．准确地获取待焊焊缝中心线．为进一步实现水下焊接的自动化打下了基础。     

基于熔池图像尖端特征规律的焊接偏差测定方法

通过对管道全位置熔化极气体保护焊(gas metal arc welding,GMAW)熔池图像的研究分析,发现并验证了其根焊熔池图像尖端与焊缝坡口中心位置重合的现象,依据此规律性特征,提出了一种基于熔池图像尖端信息的焊接偏差测定方法.该方法的基本原理是,在对焊接过程熔池CCD图像进行中值滤波、小波变换、连通区域分割等图像处理后,以搜索算法测得的根焊熔池图像尖端位置信息作为焊缝坡口中心位置的坐标值,此值与焊丝中心坐标值之差即为焊接偏差量.试验证明,此方法能从根焊熔池图像中实时测定焊接偏差量,为实现机器人自动焊缝跟踪控制提供了可靠依据.     

水下机器人局部干法焊接系统的分析

针对核电站优质水下焊接修复需求,研制了一套局部干法水下机器人焊接系统.以DSC微处理器为核心,结合二次逆变主电路,设计了全数字多波形柔性输出的大功率水下焊接电源;采用电枢电压反馈控制、高频斩波脉宽调制及动静密封技术,开发了紧凑型潜水送丝装置;针对焊接局部保护和排渣难题,开发了基于收缩喷管原理的双气帘结构微型排水罩.集成专用水下焊枪、机器人、视觉系统等,搭建水下机器人局部干法焊接试验平台,开展水下焊接试验.结果表明,研制的局部干法焊接系统样机性能可靠,引弧成功率高,焊接过程稳定,焊缝成形美观.