Robotic Welding

System Issues

J. Norberto Pires
Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Coimbra Portugal

norberto@robotics.dem.uc.pt
robotics.dem.uc.pt/norberto/

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Outline

1. Robot Technology State of the Art

2. Robot environment and Driving Forces to Automation
3. Difficulties in Automation
4. Improvements needed in the near future.
5. Welding Application - Overview
6. Software architecture
7. Remote Services
8. Adding equipment
9. Conclusions

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Brief History

Robotics was part of the thoughts of many of the great thinkers of

common history. From all of them we select:
Ctesibius (270 BC) the Greeks and the Arabians
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Nicola Tesla (1845-1943)

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Ctesibius the Greeks and the Arabians

Briefly, the first works on robotics may be

traced back until 270 BC, in the ancient
Greece, to the water clocks with mobile
figures designed by the Civil Engineer
Ctesibius. His work was followed by Phylo
of Byzantium (author of the marvellous
book Mechanical Collection, 200 BC),
Hero of Alexandria (85 BC) and Marcus
Vitruvius (25 BC). Several hundred years
later, the Arabians documented (the three
Banu Musa working for the Kalifa of
Baghdad, 786-833 AC) and developed
(Badas-Zaman IsmaIl bin ar-Razzaz
al-Jazari in the book The science of the
Ingenious Devices, 1150-1220 AC) the
Greek designs to be used on their own
creations.

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Leonardo

Leonardo Da Vinci also spent some

time on robotics, when he was
working for the Sforza family. By the
same time he painted The last
supper, he was also involved with
building the Salle delle Asse of the
Sforza Castle, where he planned to
put a human-like robot in the form of
a XV century knight. Somehow, the
plans and drawings were never
found, although some pages of his
famous book Codex Atlanticus are
missing precisely in the point where it
seams that he was preparing the
robot project.

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Nicola Tesla
Nicola Tesla did another outstanding contribution to robotics, in the turn to
our century. He was thinking about automatons and how he could command
them or embody intelligence on them. At the time, there was a German
scientist (Hertz) claiming that an electromagnetic excitation generates
radiation of the same type that can be detected far from the excitation. Tesla
thought about using this to command an automaton: the term tele-
automatics appeared. In its own words:
But this element I could easily embody in it by conveying to it my
own intelligence, my own understanding. So this invention was
evolved, and so a new art came into existence, for which the name
teleautomatics has been suggested, which means the art of
controlling movements and operations of distant automatons.

Academia
Industry

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 f
the ots o
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es
Th ustri ...
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ind ay ill
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 Technical Mile Stones

74: Electrical Drive Train 91: Digital Torque Control

74: Microprocessor Control 94: Full Dynamic Model
82: Cartesian Interpolation 94: Windows Interface
82: Computer Communication 94: Virtual Robot
82: Joy-stick 94: Fieldbus I/O
82: Menu Programming 96: Co-operating Robots
84: Vision Guidance 98: Collision Detection
86: Digital Control Loops 98: Load Identification
86: AC Drives 98: Fast Pick & Place
90: Networking

Source: ABB Robotics

Robotics State of Art

1. Position and Motion controllers Basically thats all they can

do.
2. PLC capabilities for IO control.
3. Ethernet, fieldbuses, serial connections.
4. Programming language or script for accessing resources.

Repeatability up to 0.03 mm (0.1 mm is common)

Velocity up to 5 m/s
Acceleration up to around 25 m/s2
Payload from 2-3 kg up to ~350 kg
Weight/payload around 30-40

Axis 6
Communications Profibus, Can, Ethernet and serial channels (RS 232, 485)

IO capabilities PLC like capabilities to handle digital and analog IO.

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Economic and Finantial Internet

Router
Managment

Managment
Level

Market Surveys and

Marketing
Switch
Production

Production Managment Project

Level

and Planning
HUB
Process
Level

CL_1 ... CL_N

HUB HUB
Level
Cell

...
CC_1 ... ... CC_N
Equipment
Level

CFM_1 CFM_N
Equipments Equipments
Driving Forces

Global Market
Products defined in part by the costumers.
Products are technological complex and dense.
Small batch manufacturing.
More quality at lower prices.

Flexible and agile production

Organization.
Standards
Programmable equipments. Programmable Automation.

Decision support and information systems. Robotics.

Industrial computation.

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Near Future

Lower price
Higher performance
More sophisticated sensor control
Better on-line control from prod. control systems
Better simulation and off-line programming tools
Better remote services
Better quality
Better diagnostics
Lower energy consumption
Support for new production processes
Force control As a regular feature
Evolve to lighter structures

Better SOFTWARE ...

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Near future

Capacity: better performance, lighter structures better

accelerations and velocities, better position control, force control ...
Actually dynamical models used by robots have 7-10% of error.
Usability: Programming environments, easier to use, some ways
to access the original system and change its standard way of
working object oriented software and programming.
Connectivity: Standard links and protocols: nets, protocols, net
services (telnet, ftp, disk mounting), RPC, RMI (Java), OPC.

We need robots very easy to command, in a way that they can

follow complex requests done with high level interfaces.

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
What are the problems or difficulties
of current robot control units?

We could summarize the main difficulties has follows, considering a researcher

point of view and also a system integrator point of view:

End-user programming: It is still to complex, too platform dependent, non

standard and consequently only for specialists;

System programming: APIs are very limited or non-existing, making a simple

job of adding a new resource (a board, a sensor, a new feature, etc) almost
impossible;

Human Machine Interface (HMI): It is really not working. Systems require

too many training and customization. There is some need for other approaches
like skill learning so that robots could be easily customized and get into efficient
production;

Connectivity: lacking of inter-connectable the facto standards;

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 APIs
Open Source ?? Interfaces

Industrial Manipulators

Industrial Mobile Robots

Human Robots
Open Source

Space Robots

Medical Robots (Tele-Operated)

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 Software architecture
Application

Remote call to service_i

of equipment_j

Synchronous answer from

Sensor A User Interface equipment_jto the remote call to service_i

Dialogs

Object_A Executor Services

Object_C

LAIN - Local Area Industrial Network

Sensor B Object_B

Asynchronous answer
"spontaneous message" Equipment
FMC Controller
Server Server Portmaper

Commercial
Application

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 Software architecture

The implementation of this requires the use of three programming models:

Client/server: We require to have server code running on the equipment that

deals with receiving calls from remote computers (clients), execute them and
return the results.

Remote Procedure Calls (RPC): This is the usual way to implement

communications between the client and the server of a distributed application.
The client makes what looks like a procedure call, although the resource is not
local. The RPC mechanism in use translates that into network communications.
The server receives the request, executes accordingly and returns the results.

Data Sharing: We want to have services that share files, programs,

databases, etc. The data sharing services will be built on top of RPC, which
provides the means for transferring data.

Object Technology: OMG CORBA, COM/OLE/ActiveX, Java beans ...

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 DDE Client
Applications
DDE Server DDE

DDE Callback
Function
OLE
ActiveX OLE
Force/Torque DDE Services
Sensor Object
ActiveX
Robot
Communication
Object

RP
Force/Torque
Sensor Board

Board Sy C
nc Ca
NT Kernel .A lls Robot Control System
Driver Messages RPC ns

r
we

ape
Server rs
Asy

tm
nc.
Msg

Por
. RPC
Server
Programs RAPID
Windows s Aplication
Dialog C all
OLE C rs
RP swe
ActiveX n
OLE
c .A
Force/Torque n
Sy
Sensor Object
ActiveX
Robot
Communication
Object

Win32 Application

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Software architecture

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 Joystick Application

Re
q ue
st

An
sw
er
Broadcast MSG Robot

n c. answer
= asy
Event

Master/Slave
Tele-robotics
RPC server

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 Matlab example
Industrial Robot Example

R
P
C
S
yn
c.
A
n
Matlab 5.3 sw
er
DDE RP
C
Sy
nc
.C ABB IRB1400
al
l S4 Controller

RPC Assync. Call Robot

RPC Server

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 EmailWare
A tool for e-Manufacturing.

EMAILWARE

Log file

POP3
IF poll_now service Retrieve
Poll_Robots
E-mail
Server
Send
Retrieve
E-mail alerts commands SMTP
service
Logs and errors
System Status Check
for Message to
Information emails send

Process
message
(poll_now = 1)
RPC
Process
Message
commands

Message
Queue
RPC
Server
 Pentium III
Welding ...
Profibus PC Windows NT
Matlab

CCD 1. Setup phase - where the user sets

up all the parameters and
Ethernet trajectories.
Joystick
Laser 3D 2. Welding phase - the system
should monitor the welding process
and correct on-line.
3. Analysis phase - detail the
welding seam and quality analysis.

RPC
Dialog Server
CCD

Rob
ActiveX ActiveX
CCD Rob

DDE
ActiveX
Matlab
Laser
Laser 3D
Camara
Win32 Application MEX
Files
Conclusions

State of the art of robotics technology was presented.

Brief analysis of driving forces, difficulties and near to come
innovations.
Software needs.
Our way of developing FMS solutions: software architecture.
Several examples: academic & industrial & research.
Application to welding was discussed.

Software presented can be downloaded from:

http://robotics.dem.uc.pt/norberto/

Publications also on the site.

Welding 2001, International Workshop on Robotic Welding Systems and Process Monitoring, Portugal
 Some References
Pires JN. and S da Costa JMG., "Ferramentas de Software para Controlar, Programar e
Monitorizar um Rob Manipulador Industrial usando Computadores Pessoais", Ibero-
American Mechanical Engineering Association Magazine, 1998;2(1):43-67.

Bloomer J., "Power Programming with RPC", O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1992.

Pires JN, S da Costa JMG, Object Oriented and Distributed Approach for
Programming Robotic Manufacturing Cells, IFAC Journal on Robotics and Computer
Integrated Manufacturing, to appear 1999.

Pires JN, Controlo de Fora em Robs Manipuladores Industriais, Ph.D. Thesis,

University of Coimbra, June, 1999.

Kusiak A., "Modelling and Design of Flexible Manufacturing Systems", Elsevier Science
Publishers, 1986.

Pires JN, Interfacing Robotic and Automation Equipment with Matlab, IEEE Robotics
and Automation Magazine, September 2000.

Pires JN, Emailware: A tool for e-Manufacturing, Assembly Automation Journal, MCB
University Press (to appear, expected February 2001).

Pires JN, Using Actual Robot Manipulators with Construction Tasks, Proceedings of
the ISARC17, International Conference on Automation and Robotics in Construction, Taipei,
Taiwan, September 2000.
Final message:

Robotics as a technology will evolve enormously with the cooperation

between academia & industry. In that point o view, it is very important to
have many fields of application, like robotic welding.
In Europe there is a network that addresses Robotics research and
development called EURON. Within EURON there is the interest in industrial
or applied thinking ...
Check EURON in:
http://www.cas.kth.se/euron/
EURON is coordinated by Dr. Henrik Christensen (KTH, Sweden)

Check EURON Industrial Robotics & Manufacturing Interest Group in:

http://www.control.lth.se/~robot/euron/mig.html
This Group is coordinated by Dr. Klas Nilsson (Lund, Sweden), Dr. Gordon
Petersen (Odense, Denamrk) & Dr. J. Norberto Pires (Coimbra, Portugal)