Abstract
This paper presents a novel system for the automatic analysis of a hybrid welding process. High-speed imaging and laser illumination are used to measure the regularity of electric arc frequency and flight directions of filler metal droplets. A fuzzy c-means clustering method is used to detect arcs and segment the video sequences. The droplets are localized by combining principal component analysis and a support vector machine classifier. The flight of a droplet is tracked using Kalman filtering. Experiments indicate that the system is able to track the flights of droplets and to determine the regularity of the arc frequency with a high accuracy if the imaging conditions are stable.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Avidan, S.: Support vector tracking. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 26, 1064–1072 (2004)
Bardin, F., Cobo, A., Lopez-Higuera, J.M., Collin, O., Aubry, P., Dubois, T., Högström, M., Nylen, P., Jonsson, P., Jones, J.D.C., Hand, D.P.: Optical techniques for real-time penetration monitoring for laser welding. Appl. Opt. 44, 3869–3876 (2005)
Bezdek, J.C.: A convergence theorem for the fuzzy isodata clustering algorithms. IEE Trans. PAMI 2, 1–8 (1980)
Black, M.J., Jepson, A.D.: EigenTracking: Robust matching and tracking of articulated objects using a view-based representation. Int. J. Comput. Vis. 26, 63–84 (1998)
Boser, B.E., Guyon, I.M., Vapnik, V.N.: A training algorithm for optimal margin classifiers. In: Proceedings of the 5th Annual ACM Workshop on Computational Learning Theory, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, July 27–29 pp. 144–152 (1992)
Canu, S., Grandvalet, Y., Guigue, V., Rakotomamonjy, A.: SVM and Kernel Methods Matlab Toolbox 20.12.2005. http://asi.insa-rouen.fr/~arakotom/toolbox/index.html
Chen, Y., Chen, J., Wu, L., Li, L.: The arc image processing of hybrid welding. In: 21st International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro Optics, Scottsdale, AZ, USA, October 14–17, pp.1293–1302 (2002)
Cui, G., Gao, W.: SVMs for few examples-based face recognition. In: IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Hong Kong, April 6–10, pp.381–384 (2003)
Dalal, N., Triggs, B.: Histograms of oriented gradients for human detection, In: International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR 2005, San Diego, CA, USA, pp. 886–893 (2005)
Duda, R.O., Hart, P.E., Stork, D.G.: Pattern Classification, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York (2001)
Feng, X., Fang, J., Qiu, G.: Color photo categorization using compressed histograms and support vector machines. In: Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Image Processing, Barcelona, September 14–18, pp. 753–756 (2003)
Ferraresi, V.A., Figueiredo, K.M., Hiap Ong, T.: Metal transfer in the aluminum gas metal arc welding. J. Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 25, 229–234 (2003)
Garg, A., Cohen, I., Huang, S.: Adaptive learning algorithm for SVM applied to feature tracking. In: Proceedings of the 1999 International Conference on Information Intelligence and Systems, Rockville, MD, USA, 31 October – 3 November, pp. 388–395 (1999)
Jin, X.Z., Li, L.J.: A conduction model for deep penetration laser welding on an actual keyhole. Opt. Laser Technol. 35, 5–12 (2003)
Kaierle, S., Bongard, K., Dahmen, M., Poprawe, R.: Innovative hybrid welding process in an industrial application. In: Proceedings of International Conference on the Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics ICALEO 2000, Dearborn, MI, USA, 2–5 October, pp. 91–98 (2000)
Kalman, R.E.: A new approach to linear filtering and prediction problems. Trans. ASME J. Basic Eng. 82, 35–45 (1960)
Kim, J.D., Kim, Y.H., Oh, J.S.: Diagnostics of laser-induced plasma in welding of aluminum alloy. Key Eng. Mater. 261–263, 1671–1676 (2004)
Kim, T., Suga, Y., Koike, T.: Welding of thin steel plates by hybrid welding process combined TIG Arc with YAG Laser. JSME Int. J. A Solid Mech. Mater. Eng. 46, 202–207 (2003)
Kovacevic, R., Zhang, Y.M.: Real-time image processing for monitoring of free weld pool surface. Trans. ASME J. Manuf. Sci. Eng. 119, 161–169 (1997)
Lo, C., Wang, S.: Video Segmentation using a histogram-based fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm. Comput. Stand. Interfaces 23, 429–438 (2001)
Nordbruch, S., Gräser, A.: Optimization of PGMAW using online observation and statistical data. In: 11th International Conference on Computer Technology in Welding, NIST Special Publication 973, Columbus, OH, USA, December 5–6, pp. 31–38 (2002)
Oja, E.: Subspace Methods of Pattern Recognition. Research Studies and Wiley, New York (1983)
Ponomarev, V., Scotti, A., Miranda, H.C., Costa, A.V.: Investigation of the mechanism of short arc MIG/MAG welding metal transfer mixed modes. Int. J. Join. Mater. 16, 65–70 (2004)
Qing, Y.X., Hua, H.Z., Qiang, X.: Histogram based fuzzy C-mean algorithm for image segmentation. In: Proceedings of the 11th IAPR International Conference on Pattern Recognition Vol. III, Hague, Netherlands, 30 August – 3 September, pp. 704–707 (1992)
Semak, V.V., Hopkins, J.A., McCay, M.H., McCay, T.D.: Melt pool dynamics during laser welding. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 28, 2443–2450 (1995)
Tong, H., Ueyama, T., Tanaka, M., Ushio, M.: Observations of abnormal arc voltage phenomena in AC/DC pulsed MIG welding. Weld. Int. 19, 940–944 (2005)
Trucco, E., Verri, A.: Introductory techniques for 3-D computer vision. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1998)
Wang, H., Kovacevic, R.: On-line monitoring of the keyhole welding pool in variable polarity plasma arc welding. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. B J. Eng. Manuf. 216, 1265–1276 (2002)
Wang, J.J., Lin, T., Chen, S.B.: Obtaining weld pool vision information during aluminium alloy TIG welding. Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 26, 219–227 (2005)
Wu, C.S., Chen, M.A., Lu, Y.F.: Effect of current waveforms on metal transfer in pulsed gas metal arc welding. Measurement Sci. Technol. 16, 2459–2465 (2005)
Wu, Y., Kovacevic, R.: Mechanically assisted droplet transfer process in gas metal arc welding. Proc. Institution Mech. Eng. B J. Eng. Manuf. 216, 555–564 (2002)
Xu, F., Liu, X., Fujimura, K.: Pedestrian detection and tracking with night vision. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 6, 63–71 (2005)
Zhang, Y.M., Kovacevic, R., Li, L.: Characterization and real-time measurement of geometrical appearance of the weld pool. Int. J. Mach. Tools Manuf. 36, 799–816 (1996)
Zhu, Z., Ji, Q.: Robust real-time eye detection and tracking under variable lighting conditions and various face orientations. Comput. Vis. Image Underst. 98, 124–154 (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fennander, H., Kyrki, V., Fellman, A. et al. Visual measurement and tracking in laser hybrid welding. Machine Vision and Applications 20, 103–118 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00138-007-0111-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00138-007-0111-1