Together with Trumpf and Lorch, Fraunhofer IPA has developed a technology that is revolutionizing collaborative welding robots: For the first time, an intelligent sensor add-on enables fully automatic initial planning of the robot path without any prior programming.
programming. With this solution, the development team applied for this year's "euRobotics Technology Transfer Award" under the project name "TR4CE-Weld - Tracing in Realtime 4 Cobot-Enhanced Welding". Sponsored by the European Robotics Association euRobotics and awarded annually at the European Robotics Forum, the application won through with a written part and a presentation directly at the ERF, this year in Stavanger, Norway. The award has been recognizing outstanding achievements in the transfer of robotics technology from research to industry since 2004.

The award-winning solution met a crucial market need, as demographic change and shortages of skilled workers are dramatically exacerbating the shortage of qualified welding personnel. Automation is therefore also becoming indispensable for smaller quantities, but until now it has hardly been economically feasible - especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The cooperation between research and industry provides a practical answer here: handling remains simple and fast - even without in-depth expert knowledge. The specialist simply positions the robot at the starting point of the seam. An upstream laser triangulation sensor then automatically detects the joining zone. The software calculates the welding path and torch alignment in real time so that the operation can begin within a few seconds. The decisive breakthrough: while previous
sensor systems only correct pre-programmed paths due to tolerances, the new development takes over the entire initial programming. Deviations in subsequent components are automatically compensated for. This innovation takes the efficient production of small batch sizes with cobots to a whole new level.

Both industry partners have acquired licenses and have already been bringing the technology to the market for a few years: Trumpf integrated the system under the name "Smart Seam Tracking" into the award-winning arc welding cell "TruArc Weld 1000". Lorch offers the extension as "Seam Pilot" for its collaborative welding robot.

Confirmation of intensive research work

For the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, the award is confirmation of its outstanding practical research. The technological foundations for this success were laid as part of the AI Progress Center "Learning Systems and Cognitive Robotics" with funding from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labor and Tourism. This made it possible to develop an exemplary solution that offers added value to many companies. In addition, Fraunhofer IPA and Trumpf have already been working together for many years as part of the "S-TEC Lab Flexible Sheet Metal Production". The aim of this collaboration is to successfully transfer research results into business applications. The transfer of the award-winning solution was also made possible within this framework.

Further development of the technology

The team at Fraunhofer IPA is already working on a transfer to other adaptive robot processes, on multi-layer welding and also on the integration of optical quality inspection into the cobot. Interested companies with corresponding use cases or questions are welcome to contact the Fraunhofer IPA team for a "proof of concept".