Representation of weld features and attributes in solid models to support automatic programming of arc welding robots

Abstract

Contemporary solid modellers are incapable of storing explicitly product and process definitions of weld features. This work presents a paradigm to develop a computer-aided engineering environment that supports complete weld feature information in a solid model and create an automatic programming system for robotic are welding. Welding features are treated as properties or attributes of an object features which are portions of the object surface—the topological boundary. The structure for representing the features and attributes is called the welding attribute graph. The method associates appropriate weld features to geometric primitives, adds welding attributes, and checks the validity of welding specifications. A systematic structure is provided to incorporate welding attributes and coordinate system information in a CSG tree. The specific implementation of this structure using a hybrid solid modeller (IDEAS) and an object-orientated programming environment is described. An outstanding application of we...