The Development of an Off-Line Programming System For Automated Welding

The objective of this proposed work is to develop a commercial, low-cost off-line programming system which would improve the productivity of the US shipbuilding industry by reducing the time and effort required to automate small batch manufacturing operations. To help achieve this goal, the PAWS-OLP system will be transitioned for commercial use. The PAWS-OLP system was developed to provide a greater degree of automation within the off-line planning process. We propose to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of PAWS-OLP by porting its internal solid modeler to ACIS, a commercial solid modeling system. This will include an evaluation of native ACIS functions for supporting the innovative optimization algorithms within PAWS-OLP. Additionally, we will develop a neutral file format for exchanging welding process information. As a result of this work, we will demonstrate the feasibility of batch processing welding jobs by importing a CAD file describing a part to be welded and automatically generating the controller files needed to weld in the PAWS welding cell.