Asakawa, N. and Kanjo, Y.

Paper:

Collision Avoidance of a Welding Robot for a Large Structure

(Application of Potential Field)
Naoki Asakawa and Yoshihiro Kanjo
Faculty

of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University

Kakuma-machi, Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan
E-mail: nasakawa@t.kanazawa-u.ac.jp
Turumi Works, JFE Engineering Corp.
Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 230-8611, Japan
[Received January 10, 2013; accepted February 21, 2013]

This study deals with the automation of welding by

generating control commands for a welding robot automatically. Generally, a movement of a robot is decided depending on the tool path a series of positions
and postures of the tool attached to the mechanical interface of the robot. We tried to generate the tool path
focused on the collision avoidance of the welding tool
on the basis of CAD data on the workpiece. In the
study, to cope with a characteristic of welding, the requirement to be continuous in tool velocity and posture, the tool path is generated through the use of a
potential field in a configuration space. As a result, the
system is found to successfully generate smooth and
collision-free tool paths.

Stiffener

Keywords: industrial robot, welding, collision avoidance

Fig. 1. Workpiece.

1. Introduction
Since welding is a contaminating and dangerous operation, it has been researched and developed for a long time,
and, even now, improvements in operations are progressing for the sake of production efficiency and quality. To
help deal with problems, industrial robots have been used
in several industrial fields [1-5]. However, recent trends
toward the production of items small in number yet large
in variety and complexity have increased the possibility
of collisions between the welding tool or robot arm and
the workpiece. Thus, teaching the robot has become to
be an operation requiring skill and time. Consequently,
the generation of welding paths that take collisions into
consideration has also been required, as in other industrial fields [6-9]. We have already reported on collision
problems between tool and workpiece, the robot arm and
workpiece, and the robot arm and cable in the case of
welding on large structure workpieces [10]. In that report,
the problem was solved using the experience of human
operators. Although the method effectively generated tool
paths in a short time, the shapes of the workpieces were
limited. In general, as a means of collision avoidance,
a potential field has often been used in robot application.
Needless to say, the concept has been widely used for path
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planning on 2-dimensional planes [11], and the concept

has recently been used for path planning in 3-dimesional
space [12-14]. Although the systems can generate paths
from the starting point to the goal with no collisions, most
of them have focused on the position of the robot, not on
its posture. In our study, the welding points are ordered
in advance, and the system is required to determine the
posture at each point.
In this paper, we focus on collisions between tool
and workpiece; more general automatic generation of the
welding path, taking the issue of collisions into consideration and using CAD data on the workpiece field, is reported on the basis of potential fields.

2. Workpiece
In the study, the workpiece is a large structure used in
bridges or ships (Fig. 1). The workpiece is larger than the
robot, and the robot is hung above the workpiece to perform the operation. Although it basically consists of boxshaped elements, stiffeners (parts that reinforce the structure) are attached to handle the complexity of the product
Int. J. of Automation Technology Vol.7 No.2, 2013

Collision Avoidance of a Welding Robot for a Large Structure

(Application of Potential Field)

CAD system
Stiffener

CAD data
Main processor
Tool path

Welding part

Post processor

Robot control command

6DOF -Robot

Fig. 3. System configuration.

Workpiece
Fig. 2. Modeled workpiece.

Welding torch(Tool)
P :Tool position
T D V :Tool posture vectors

shape. In the study, the welding of a corner is dealt with

for the workpiece modeled as shown in Fig. 2.

3. Configuration of the System

The configuration of the system is shown in Fig. 3.
A tool path is generated by a main processor on the basis of CAD data on a workpiece in a CAD system (Ricoh Co., Ltd; Designbase) on a computer (PFU Co., Ltd.;
GP400S model5). The tool path is transferred to a robot
controller as a robot control program converted in a post
processor. Issues explained in the paper correspond to the
main processor. The robot supposed to be used is a VR008A (Panasonic Co., Ltd.; articulated robot 1240 mm
in length). It is installed upside down on the ceiling and
equipped with a welding tool at the mechanical interface, the top of the robot. To evaluate the movement of
the robot, draw, and detect collisions, CimStation (Mitsui
Zosen Systems Research, Inc.) is used.

4. Tool Path
In this paper, Tool path refers to a series of positions
and postures of a welding tool in an operation. As shown
in Fig. 4, the position of the tip of the tool, the axial direction of the tool, and the direction around the tool axis
are expressed by tool position P, tool vector T, and tool
direction D, respectively, on the basis of CAD data on the
workpiece. P is generated on an arbitrarily divided welding line. T is generated as the direction of the middle
angle between walls making up a corner. D is generated
as an outer product of vector V (differential vector of adjacent P) and T.

5. Outlook of Collision Avoidance

In general, a potential field is expressed using the position (x, y, z) of the object. In the system, however, the
Int. J. of Automation Technology Vol.7 No.2, 2013

P
T

V
Fig. 4. Tool path.

tool posture ( , , ) is the target. To express the changes

in the postures in a potential field, a C-space (Configuration space) [15] is introduced. Generally, a C-space is a
parametric space that represents positions and postures of
a mobile object. In the study, however, the positions are
ordered in advance. Therefore, 3-dimensional C-space is
expressed using posture angles , , and at each point
to calculate a tool path considering collisions. The procedure is as follows:
(1) At each P on the welding line, T is generated as a
tool posture tilted 45 degrees from the wall. As the
posture deemed best for welding quality, the posture
is named the basic posture, as shown in Fig. 5. To
simplify the calculation, the welding tool was modeled as shown in Fig. 6.
(2) At each P, vectors D, V, and T, which express the
basic posture, are changed by rotation to check for
collisions.
(3) A posture that causes a collision is projected in a Cspace having its origin at the basic posture by rotating , , and , which stand for the rotational
angle around D, V, and T, respectively, as shown
in Fig. 7. In actual implementation, the areas are
expressed with clusters of discrete values from the
viewpoint of calculation costs, as shown in Fig. 8.
(4) At each P, a potential field is generated in the Cspace by repulsion force from collision area, attraction force from the basic posture, and additional
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