Inverse kinematic control algorithm for a welding robot-positioner system to trace a 3D complex curve

The welding robots equipped with rotary positioners have been widely used in several manufacturing industries. However, for welding a 3D complex weld seam, a great deal of points should be created to ensure the weld path smooth. This is a boring job and is a great challenge-rotary positioner system since the robot and the positioner must move simultaneously at the same time. Therefore, in this article, a new inverse kinematics solution is proposed to generate the movement codes for a six DOFs welding robot incorporated with a rotary positioner. In the algorithm, the kinematic error is minimized, and the actual welding error is controlled so that it is always less than an allowable limit. It has shown that the proposed algorithm is useful in developing an offline CAD-based programming tool for robots when welding complex 3D paths. The use of the algorithm increases the accuracy of the end-effector positioning and orientation, and reduces the time for teaching a welding robot-positioner system. Simulation scenarios demonstrate the potency of the suggested method. © 2019 IEEE.