Augmented Reality — Helmet for the Manual Welding Process

An augmented reality (AR) system integrated in a newly developed welding helmet improves the conditions for manual welding. The scene is acquired by a stereoscopic high dynamic range CMOS (HDRC) camera system that allows the observance of the welding arc and the environment simultaneously. Using image processing, the scene will be enhanced and displayed on a video see-through head mounted display (HMD). Besides a better view of the welding scene, the welder can operate an “on-screen” remote control of the welding machine to change machine parameters without lifting the helmet or changing the working position. During the welding process, the inclusion of additional on-line process data provides more information about the quality of the seam and erroneous states like sputter or sub-optimal welding gun inclination. Electrical data and synchronized acquired images are recorded on-line and may be used for off-line documentation and quality inspection. With an AR helmet, the welder will be able to produce seams of higher quality and the inspection cost will decrease. The chapter presents the development and research of the helmet in detail.