Coordinated motion of arc welding robots using parallel data processor

The authors propose an arc welding robot system, where two robots work in coordination. One robot moves the welding target so that the welding puddle lies in a horizontal plane considering the effect of gravity. The other robot moves the welding torch considering the movement of the welding target. A feature of the control system is that a teach and playback method is used since mechanical errors inevitable in practical industrial robots can be compensated for during the teaching task without any additional sensors. Another feature is that a technique to simplify teaching tasks of coordinated motions of two arc welding robots is used. To realize fast data processing of coordinated motions a parallel data processing technique is developed. Due to the use of parallel data processing, two robots can be controlled with accurate movements. Experimental results reveal the applicability of the system