Robotic friction stir welding aided by hybrid force/motion control

The relevance and importance of industrial robots in manufacturing has increased over the years, with applications in diverse new and non-traditional manufacturing processes. This paper presents the concept and design of a novel friction stir welding (FSW) robotic platform for welding polymeric materials. It was conceived to have a number of advantages over common FSW machines: it is more flexible, cheaper, easy and fast to setup, and easy to program. The platform is composed by three major groups of hardware: a robotic manipulator, a FSW tool and a system that links the manipulator wrist to the FSW tool (support of the FSW tool). This system is also responsible for supporting a force/torque (F/T) sensor and a servo motor that transmits motion to the tool. During the process, a hybrid force/motion control system adjusts the robot trajectories to keep a given contact force between the tool and the welding surface. The platform is tested and optimized in the process of welding acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plates. Experimental tests proved the versatility and validity of the solution.