Abstract
We have developed a seam tracking system that is attached to an industrial robot and achieves a tracking accuracy of 0.1 mm. The system consists of a weld line sensor and seam tracking mechanism. The weld line sensor detects two seam positions along a weld line simultaneously. Since the detected seam positions include robot position errors, the system then estimates the real seam positions and robot position errors by using two detected seam positions, and the tracking mechanism follows the real seam positions. The accuracy of the system has been examined by both computer simulation and experiment.
