Development of a Simulator for Off-Line Programming of Gantry-Robot Welding System

Welding automation is one of the most important manufacturing issues in shipbuilding in order to lower the cost, increase the quality, and avoid the labor problems. Generally the on-line teaching is utilized on the robot that is used in the welding automation system, but it requires much effort and long time to program. Especially, if the system is composed of more than two cooperating robots, it demands much more skill to program the robots' motion. Thus, a convenient programming tool is required for efficient utilization of welding automation system. In this study, a convenient programming tool is developed for welding automation in which gantry-robot system is used. The system is composed of a gantry transporter and two robots mounted on the gantry to cover the wide work range in the ship building application. As a programming tool, an off-line programming software based on PC is developed. By using this software, field operator does not need to concern about coding of task programs for three control units, one is for gantry and two are for robots. The task programs are automatically generated by assembling the program modules in database according to geometrical information of workpiece and welding condition, which become the only concern of field operator, The feasibility of the generated programs can be verified via a motion simulator previously to on-line running.