Control of robot-integrated gas metal arc welding process

The proposed research focuses on the development of a robotic arc welding system, wherein a three-degree-of-freedom SCARA robot is interfaced to a GMAW process. The entire system is composed of a robot linked to a GMAW system. Set points are derived using desired mass and heat input along with the weld speeds. Arc voltage and current of the welding process are controlled using Direct Model Reference Adaptive Controller (DMRAC). The trajectory of the robot or the weld profile is also controlled by implementing multi-input multi-output (MIMO) DMRAC on the three-axis SCARA robot. The system is then analyzed in its ability to respond effectively to varying arc voltage and current in welding a straight-line and a curvilinear weld profile for which desirable responses are obtained.