Offline motion planning and simulation of two-robot welding coordination

Abstract

This paper focuses on the two-robot welding coordination of complex curve seam which means one robot grasp the workpiece, the other hold the torch, the two robots work on the same workpiece simultaneously. This paper builds the dual-robot coordinate system at the beginning, and three point calibration method of two robots’ relative base coordinate system is presented. After that, the non master/slave scheme is chosen for the motion planning, the non master/slave scheme sets the poses versus time function of the point u on the workpiece, and calculates the two robot end effecter trajectories through the constrained relationship matrix automatically. Moreover, downhand welding is employed which can guarantee the torch and the seam keep in good contact condition all the time during the welding. Finally, a Solidworks-SimMechanics simulation platform is established, and a simulation of curved steel pipe welding is conducted. The results of the simulation illustrate the welding process can meet the requirements of downhand welding, the joint displacement curves are smooth and continuous and no joint velocities are out of working scope.

Keywords

complex curve seam / two robots / coordinated welding / motion planning

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Key Program of China (No. 2009AA043901–3), Breakthrough Projects Focused on Key Areas of Hong Kong and Guangdong (No. 20090101-1), Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2010B080703004) and Industry, University and Research Project of Guangdong Province (No. 2010B090400259).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg