Modeling and motion control of mobile robot for lattice type welding

This paper presents a motion control method and its simulation results of a mobile robot for a lattice type welding. Its dynamic equation and motion control methods for welding speed and seam tracking are described. The motion control is realized in the view of keeping constant welding speed and precise target line even though the robot is driven for following straight line or curve. The mobile robot is modeled based on Lagrange equation under nonholonomic constraints and the model is represented in state space form. The motion control of the mobile robot is separated into three driving motions of straight locomotion, turning locomotion and torch slider control. For the torch slider control, the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control method is used. For the straight locomotion, a concept of decoupling method between input and output is adopted and for the turning locomotion, the turning speed is controlled according to the angular velocity value at each point of the corner with range of 90° constrained to the welding speed. The proposed control methods are proved through simulation results and these results have proved that the mobile robot has enough ability to apply the lattice type welding line.