Page 8 - Welding Robots Technology, System Issues, and Applications

Preface
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products since productivity and quality can be increased, and production costs and
manpower can be decreased. Nevertheless, when a robot is added to a welding
setup the problems increase in number and in complexity. Robots are still difficult
to use and program by regular operators, have limited remote facilities and
programming environments, and are controlled using closed systems and limited
software interfaces.

The present book gives a detailed overview of Robotic Welding at the beginning of
the twenty-first century. The evolution of robotic welding is presented, showing to
the reader what were the biggest steps and developments observed in the last few
years. This is presented with the objective of establishing the current state-of-the-
art in terms of technologies, welding systems, software and sensors. The remaining
issues, i.e., the issues that remain open are stated clearly, as a way to motivate the
readers to follow the rest of the book which will make contributions to clarify most
of them and help to solve a few.

To do that, a good chapter on “Welding Technology” is presented, describing the
most important welding techniques and their potential and requirements for
automation using robot manipulators. This chapter includes recent results on
robotic welding processes, which can constitute a good source of information and
practical examples for readers.

A good revision with current research results on “Sensors for Welding Robots”
used on robotic welding is also presented. This includes sensors for seam tracking,
quality control and supervision. This chapter includes all system requirements
necessary to use those sensors and sensing techniques with actual robot control
systems. Hardware and software interfaces are also covered in detail.

A good revision on available welding systems, including hardware and software,
clarifying their advantages, and drawbacks is also necessary to give to the reader a
clear picture of the area. The book includes a chapter on “Welding Robots: System
Issues”, which covers recent state-of-the-art of industrial robotic welding systems
currently available in industry and university laboratories.

Finally, a few industrial applications using the presented techniques and systems is
presented. The present book includes a chapter on “Robotic Welding: Application
Examples”, where a few selected applications are described in detail including
aspects related to software, hardware, system integration and industrial
exploitation. This chapter uses actual robots, but it is presented in a general way so
that the interested reader can easily explore his interests.

Conclusions stating what was presented and what are the next challenges, guiding
the reader to what are the next required developments, is presented at the end of the
book. A good collection of references is also presented, to enable the reader to
explore further from the literature.

J. Norberto Pires, Coimbra, 2005