Quality monitoring in robotised welding using sequential probability ratio test

This paper addresses the problem of automatic monitoring the weld quality produced by robotised short arc welding. A simple statistical change detection algorithm for the weld quality, recursive sequential probability ratio test (SPRT), is used. The algorithm may equivalently be viewed as a cumulative sum (CUSUM) type test. The test statistics is based upon the variance of the amplitude of the weld voltage. It is shown that the variance of the weld voltage amplitude decreases when the welding process is not operating under optimal condition. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using experimental data. The results obtained from the algorithm indicate that it is possible to detect changes in the weld quality automatically and on-line.