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Visual sensing and controlling of the keyhole in robotic plasma arc welding

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Abstract

With an advantage of “single-sided welding and double-sided forming,” plasma arc welding (PAW) has a great application potential in modern industrial production. The welding quality can be guaranteed by sensing and controlling of the keyhole. However, it is difficult to make an on-line observation on the back of base metal, and realize a dynamic registration of the visual sensor and welding torch. In this study, it has investigated the relationship between the welding condition and image feature of keyhole. Image processing is designed to obtain the weld pool image and conduct a template matching of the keyhole. The target feature of weld zone will be extracted and processed in real time. Besides, it has designed a digital controller for the welding robot and power source in this study and discussed control method to stabilize the keyhole and achieve good welding quality. Eventually, experiments are conducted to inspect the comprehensive performance of the welding control system with varying disturbance. This study is of important significance for the visual sensing and controlling of the keyhole in PAW. It will provide technical support for the weld quality control, and promote the development of welding technology based on machine vision in intelligent manufacturing field.

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Funding

This work is supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M701724), the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST (No. 2020R006), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20191286), the JSPS KAKENHI Grant (No. 19K05076), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 30920021139), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 6210022534).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Automation, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Weixi Wang, Zhong Wei & Kai Hu

  2. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan

    Satoshi Yamane, Jidong Lu & Takaaki Hirano

  3. Mechatronics and Automobile Engineering School, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, China

    Qi Wang

  4. School of Automation, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Weixi Wang, Liang Shan & JinSheng Sun

  5. Hitachi Construction Machinery Co, Ltd, Ibaraki, 300-0013, Japan

    Kazumichi Hosoya, Toru Nakajima & Hikaru Yamamoto

Authors
  1. Weixi Wang
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  2. Satoshi Yamane
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  3. Qi Wang
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  4. Liang Shan
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  5. JinSheng Sun
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  6. Zhong Wei
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  7. Kai Hu
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  8. Jidong Lu
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  9. Takaaki Hirano
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  10. Kazumichi Hosoya
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  11. Toru Nakajima
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  12. Hikaru Yamamoto
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Correspondence to Weixi Wang.

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Wang, W., Yamane, S., Wang, Q. et al. Visual sensing and controlling of the keyhole in robotic plasma arc welding. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 121, 1401–1414 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-09387-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-09387-7

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