Intelligent vision sensor for the robotic laser welding

The intelligent sensory system is required to ensure the accurate welding performance. This paper describes the development of an intelligent vision sensor for the robotic laser welding. The sensor system includes a PC based vision camera and a stripe-type laser diode. A set of robust image processing algorithms are implemented. The laser-stripe sensor can measure the profile of the welding object and obtain the seam line. Moreover, the working distance of the sensor can be changed and other configuration is adjusted accordingly. The robot, the seam tracking system, and CW Nd:YAG laser are used for the laser welding robot system. The simple and efficient control scheme of the whole system is also presented. The profile measurement and the seam tracking experiments were carried out to validate the operation of the system.