Robotic laser welding: seam sensor and laser focal frame registration

Robotic laser welding places extreme demands on the spatial accuracy with which the robot must position the focal point of the laser with respect to the joint to be welded. The required level of accuracy is difficult to achieve in a production environment without the use of end-point sensor based control of the robot. This requires that the end-point sensor frame and welding laser frame be accurately calibrated with respect to each other, as well as with respect to the robot wrist frame. This calibration can be difficult to perform since the sensor and laser frames are virtual in the sense that these are located in space with respect to the physical hardware, and the wrist frame of the robot is often not physically accessible. This paper presents the design of a calibration system with which these frames may be precisely defined with respect to each other.