Operation of a haptic interface for offline programming of welding robots by applying a spring-damper model

ABSTRACT

This paper studies a system of a virtual welding torch employed during the teaching process of welding tasks for offline programming of robotic manipulators. The torch is manipulated by the user in a virtual environment applying a haptic interface. An approach based on a spring-damper model is proposed to compute the force to be felt by the user during the manipulation of the interface. The force is such that more realistic sensations are perceived by the hand’s user if a collision occurs of the torch in the virtual environment. A suitable strategy is employed to represent the virtual torch by two coupled models with spring-damper systems (SDS). Such models are termed kinematic virtual torch (KVT) and dynamic virtual torch (DVT). Thus, in the studied system, the DVT follows the geometric coordinates of the KVT during a manipulation of the torch avoiding penetration of other objects in the scene. Careful analyses are accomplished on manipulation tasks using different SDS configurations in a case study in order to show the efficacy of the proposed approach. As a result, a desired welding task is properly programmed for a robot in an easy and accurate way.

KEYWORDS:

• Robotic welding
• path planning
• haptics
• offline programming
• virtual reality
• dynamic behaviour

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, the National Technological Institute of Mexico (TNM) / La Laguna Institute of Technology, and the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT) of Mexico.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.