Abstract

In this study, a welding manipulator has been designed in order to perform the butt-welding operation automatically of cylindrical sheet metals used in natural gas and heating systems. After the design procedure, the elements related to welding manipulator desired, has been defined and the test apparatuses was manufactured. In order to obtain profile of surface that will be welded on sheet metal, 2D laser profile sensor was used. A Personal Computer (PC) based software was developed and tested on the experiment set up in order to define the position of welding torch depends on profile data of welded area. The butt-welding process of two sheet metal shopped cylindrically was carried out automatically on test apparatuses.

Key words: Image processing, seam tracking, laser 2D profile sensor, visual control algorithm, butt seam.