Objective:
The project goal is to demonstrate the use of a cobot as a general-purpose motion tool that is flexible enough to work with a variety of welding, cutting, and other metalworking equipment that is currently on site and used at shipyards.
Summary:
At present a shipyard panel fabrication area has welding power supplies located under the structural supports of the overhead crane rails. This project will allow the cobot to be the next-generation motion system for the welders, plasma cutters, and other devices. This project is focused on cobot applications that can be anywhere in the greater workspaces of shipyards: plate processing, panel lines, inner-bottom assembly areas, and many others.
Key Deliverables / Benefits:
The results of the project will drastically improve the implementation of cobotics for welding and other processes by allowing the use of the already installed equipment with which welders are already proficient.
This project will enable the use of existing metal working equipment (weld power supplies, cutting equipment, and other metal working equipment) with cobot motion platforms. Existing equipment settings and programs can be utilized, thus saving the cost of purchasing new equipment and complexity of transferring settings into the cobot programming interface.
Overview
Project Team:
- EWI
- Ingalls Shipbuilding
- Robotic Technologies of Tennessee
- NSWCCD
March 2024 – March 2025
NSRP ASE Investment: $138K
