Nitin R. Nayak

Intelligent Seam Tracking for Robotic Welding is part of the Advances in Industrial Control series, edited by Professor M.J. Grimble and Dr. M.A. Johnson of the Industrial Control Unit, University of Strathclyde. This publication discusses in depth the development of a seam tracking system for robotic welding. Various topics are covered including the theory of seam tracking, details of the sub-systems comprising the intelligent seam tracker and the operation of the seam tracking system with coordinated interaction amongst the various sub-systems. The sources of various seam tracking errors and existing seam tracking systems operating in both structured and unstructured welding environments are also addressed. The work reported builds upon the research conducted during the course of the project ARTIST (Adaptive, RealTime, Intelligent Seam Tracker) at the Applied Research Laboratory of the Pennsylvania State University. Although the book is presented in the context of seam tracking, issues related to systems integration are general in nature and relate to other applications as well.