AutoTIG

"TIG welding is a commonly used joining technique for fabricating metal structures across a range of industries. However, it currently has a number of limitations, principally (i) it's heavily reliant on highly-skilled manual welding experts (which are expensive and in very short supply) and (ii) it lacks flexibility to automate the welding of complex geometries.

Adaptive AUTOmated TIG welding (AutoTIG) aims to develop an adaptive and automated closed loop controlled TIG welding system. The project will take state-of-the-art knowledge in welding and adaptive control, and combine this with a process head with a range integrated sensors. Sensors will be used to establish welding paths and vision systems will collect and analyse images of the weldpool for real time adaptive control. Combining sensor data and process knowledge is an innovative approach which we believe will provide a solution to overcome the barriers to robotic TIG welding This will enable a demonstration system to address, monitor and control: the full welding process leading to a high-productivity and low-defect rate TIG welding process."