A reference architecture for the design of an industrial temperature feedback welding control system

This paper describes a provisional not fully developed architecture of a thermal feedback system for closed-loop control of robotic arc welding. The architecture is based on an off-line planning system for welding and an on-line welding control system, where the off-line planning system builds the reference to be followed by the on-line closed-loop system. The main aim of this architecture is to develop a method by which thermal feedback welding control systems can be designed. This control system is meant for control of welding of thick-walled sheet metal geometries and the system feeds back the temperatures on the surface of the geometry. The temperature is fed back by an infrared CCD-array camera. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.