Coarse Geometry acquisition of welding parts using a novel cheap depth sensor

Conference: ROBOTIK 2012 - 7th German Conference on Robotics
05/21/2012 - 05/22/2012 at Munich, Germany

Proceedings: ROBOTIK 2012

Pages: 6Language: englishTyp: PDF

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Authors:
Gecks, Thorsten; Henrich, Dominik (University of Bayreuth, Lehrstuhl für Angewandte Informatik III, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany)
Müller, Christopher; Vogl, Wolfgang (Blackbird Robotersysteme GmbH, Erfurter Strasse 5, 85386 Eching, Germany)

Abstract:
We present a human-robot-cooperation welding system, consisting of several phases including a coarse acquisition of the work piece geometry, interactive fine-scanning of welding seam regions and automated optimizing path planning after task specification by the user. The coarse geometry acquisition component is explained in detail showing the feasible application of a novel and cheap 3D-Sensor (MS KINECT) in this domain. The evaluation shows promising and sufficient results for planning the acquisition of high-resolution fine scans using a standard laser scanner and the use of an automated path planning component. The path planning is based on a bidirectional RRT planner followed by a path optimization. The system thus enables the human coworker to specify a welding task for unknown geometries fast to the machine and relieves him from the tedious robot movement planning during the actual welding phase.