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Robust weld seam tracking method based on detection and tracking of laser stripe

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Abstract

In the automatic welding system based on structured light vision, the precision of detection of the welding feature point in the weld image plays a critical role. Due to various interferences captured in a complex welding environment, it is essential to extract the feature point accurately. A practical and robust welding seam tracking algorithm by considering the welding feature point detection problem as the detection and tracking of laser stripes is proposed in this paper. In the initial image, the laser stripe candidates are detected by searching the peak of the gray distribution and the actual laser stripe is extracted by the similarity between real image and simulated image. The laser stripe is tracked based on the improved mean shift tracking method with the patch-based representation in the sequent images. The real-time performance and accuracy of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated by comparison with other methods through experiments.

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Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work is supported by the National Key R &D Program of China (Grant Nos. 2019YFB1310200), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52075180).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Automobile Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 516041, Guangdong Province, China

    Nianfeng Wang, Jialin Yang, Xianmin Zhang & Kaifan Zhong

  2. Shenzhen Polytechnic, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Tao Gong

Authors
  1. Nianfeng Wang
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  2. Jialin Yang
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  3. Xianmin Zhang
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  4. Tao Gong
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  5. Kaifan Zhong
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Correspondence to Tao Gong or Kaifan Zhong.

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Wang, N., Yang, J., Zhang, X. et al. Robust weld seam tracking method based on detection and tracking of laser stripe. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 130, 3481–3493 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12667-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-12667-5

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