A Novel 3-D Path Extraction Method for Arc Welding Robot Based on Stereo Structured Light Sensor

Abstract

With the rapid development of computer vision and industrial technology, the requirements of the intelligent welding robots are increasing in the real industrial production. The traditional teaching-playback mode and the off-line programming mode cannot meet the automation demand and self-adaptive ability of welding robots. In order to improve the efficiency of welding robots, this paper proposes a novel 3-D path extraction method of weld seams based on a stereo-structured light sensor. Faced with the low efficiency of the line-structured light and the poor robustness of passive vision, the seam extraction based on a point cloud processing algorithm is proposed which could well adapt to the weld seams with different types and different groove sizes. Meanwhile, the position information and pose information of weld seam are established to serve 3-D path teaching of a welding robot. The experimental results show that the maximum path extraction error of V-type butt joint is less than 0.7 mm. The proposed scheme could well serve for the 3-D path teaching task before welding.