Task planning for welding applications

Welding robots that use sensors to compensate for variations in their environment pose new requirements for programming systems and for controller architectures. Tracking sensors must be programmed with the geometry of the welds and the motions of the robot. The process monitoring system must be programmed with the required process tolerances and the type of weld. Finally, the controller must be programmed with the motion parameters, velocity and end-pose. Task planning for welding applications is the specification of the geometrical and the technological parameters that are necessary to the above subsystems. The architecture of the controller also must be process-related to allow the flow of planning information to the different subsystems and the necessary feedback to the planning level. Data from the sensors must be used with path data, process information and the geometry of the welds to adjust the process in real time. This article describes the requirements of process-related programming and real-time control of industrial robots based on sensor data