Computer-Aided Robot Trajectory Auto-generation Strategy in Thermal Spraying

This paper is concerned with a new methodology which is designed to auto-generate the robotic trajectory for thermal spraying process. Based on it, a software package named Thermal Spray Toolkit is developed and integrated in the main frame of off-line programming software RobotStudio™ (Product of ABB Company, Sweden). This toolkit implements the robotic trajectory planning in an interactive manner between RobotStudio™ and the finite element analysis software (FES). It allows rearranging the imported node index created on the surface of workpiece by FES and in turn generating the thermal spraying needed robot trajectories. Several parameters in thermal spraying, such as scanning step and torch-substrate relative velocity which have major influence on the coating deposition, are considered in the trajectory generation process. Experiment is carried out to check the reliability of the generated robot trajectory.