THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF USING INTELLIGENCE GLEANED FROM THE ELECTRICAL ARC SIGNALS OF THE SUBMERGED ARC WELDING PROCESS TO ADAPTIVELY CONTROL THE POSITION AND GEOMETRY OF THE WELD BEAD RELATIVE TO THE

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF USING INTELLIGENCE GLEANED FROM THE ELECTRICAL ARC SIGNALS OF THE SUBMERGED ARC WELDING PROCESS TO ADAPTIVELY CONTROL THE POSITION AND GEOMETRY OF THE WELD BEAD RELATIVE TO THE WELD JOINT. BY SO DOING, IT WILL BE ESTABLISHED THAT PROPER SIDEWALL AND INTERBEAD FUSION AND UNIFORM FILL CAN BE ADAPTIVELY MAINTAINED IN REAL-TIME. IT WILL BE THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF ACCOMPLISHING THIS FOR BOTH CONVENTIONAL JOINTS AND NARROW GAP JOINTS OF VARYING WIDTH AND PARALLELISM WITH RESPECT TO THE TORCH MOTION. A FURTHER OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH EFFORT WILL BE TO ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF DOING THIS WHILE MAINTAINING THE HEAT INPUT WITHIN MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM LIMITS AS PRESCRIBED FOR PROPER METALLURGICAL PROPERTIES. THE SPECIFIC WORK TASKS ARE: (1) DETERMINATION OF THE EFFECT OF LATERAL ARC OSCILLATION ON THE OBSERVED SIGNAL FEATURES AND THE METALLURGICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE WELD, (2) ESTABLISHMENT OF MODELS OF THE SUBMERGE ARC WELDING PROCESS VARIABLES, (3) IDENTIFICATION OF OPTIMUM WAVEFORM FEATURES FOR PATTERN RECOGNITION, (4) ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIABLE PATTERN RECOGNITION ALGORITHMS, AND (5) ESTABLISHMENT OF CONTROL ALGORITHMS.