Automatic welding robot system for the horizontal position in the shipyard

In the horizontal position welding, a series of trials for automatic welding technique have been carried out. However, their results have been used under some limited scopes. In this study, a welding robot system was developed to automate the horizontal welding in ship building construction. The small mechanical robot incorporates CAN-communication based motor drivers to minimize wiring of the welding robot. In order to weld on various gaps between workpieces, an automatic gap measurement and an algorithm for weld pass design were developed. A database of optimum welding conditions for FCAW(flux cored arc welding) and GMAW(gas metal arc welding) process was also established. The developed welding robot system showed a good performance in the shop test, and it is being optimized in HHI shipyard.