Study On Off-line Programming System For Robotic Arc-welding Additive Manufacturing

The additive manufacturing of arc welding using the metal materialshas advantages of high efficiency, low cost, easy to control, superior machiningflexibility and little limit of product specification. Developing the additivemanufacturing software with independent intellectual property rights is ofimportant significance for the practical application and popularization of theadditive manufacturing on the metal materials. This paper deeply studies thefunctions of slicing， route planning and animation simulation in the off-lineprogramming system on additive manufacturing.STL slicing is visualized by OpenGL on the VC++6.0platform. The pointcloud data of work piece is obtained by the structured light. The shortest distancemethod is used to reduce data. Then, by using the method of direct comparisonof the point cloud, it will get the cloud data to be processed. The point cloudmodel is sliced by a point cloud slicing technique. Finally, it adds the function ofthe anew slicing.To reduce the processing difficulty on the complex part, it is dividedinto edge, face, ring three kinds of subarea route planning, with the method ofpicking points in3D visualization environment. The route planning on the cross-section contours of edge shape is needed to determine whether the shape meetsthe requirements. For the curve of the second degree, the least-squaremethod of curve matching is considered. For the cross-section contours of faceshape, the section contour data got from slicing is processed orderly for boththe convex and the concave contours, to form a closed contour. For the cross-section contours of ring shape, a rapid method of route planning through insideand outside boundaries recognition is for simple cylindrical work pieces. For thesimple column with polygonal cross section, contour offset is for route planningby obtaining inside section contour data.Developing the simulation program of KUKA robot, which obtains weldinginformation through the additive manufacturing software, is used for additivemanufacturing process simulation based on double-buffering technique. Itrenders window with OpenGL, and satisfies that the welding parameters can beset. Auxiliary functions are added. The realization of video recording ofanimation process and saving images is used to form the senses of the machiningprocess, and deepens people’s understanding of the production process andmanufacturing system. It is conducive to guide the actual production, whichoptimizes the manufacturing process and manufacturing system. By experiment research about the off-line programming system on additivemanufacturing, the results show that the system has prefect functions, an easy-to-use form and reliable operation.