Automatic program generation for welding robots from CAD

Industrial robotic automation is a key tool for manufacturing companies to achieve flexibility and low production costs. However, the cost associated with re-programming limits the economic viability for low production volumes. Automated Offline Programming is an approach that uses software algorithms to generate robot programs with little or no human effort. This contrasts with typical programming methods that require considerable human effort from highly skilled operators. This paper presents an Automated Offline Programming solution developed for a steel fabrication company and details the motion planning algorithms. It also describes a novel technique to decompose the welding path motion planning problem into sequential sub-problems such that greedy search techniques can be employed. The results show that this programming approach is effective for robot welding applications and reduces programming effort to effectively no cost.