# US 2019/0170694 A1 · Automatic car body welding spot inspection system and its control method

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- Number: US 2019/0170694 A1
- Document ID: US20190170694A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/205,835
- Filed: 2018-11-30
- Published: 2019-06-06
- Earliest claimed: 2017-12-01
- Assignees: SHANGHAI EVERTEC ROBOT TECHNOLOGY, Ltd.
- Applicants: Shanghai Evertec Robot Technology Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Weibin Xiong; Bin Sun; Gaokun Li
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190170694A1

## CPC

- G01N 27/902: {by moving the sensors}
- B23K 31/125: {Weld quality monitoring}
- B25J 19/02: Sensing devices
- G01M 17/007: Wheeled or endless-tracked vehicles (G01M17/08 takes precedence)
- B62D 27/02: rigid
- B62D 65/02: Joining sub-units or components to, or positioning sub-units or components with respect to, body shell or other sub-units or components
- G01N: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES (measuring or testing apparatus or processes other than immunoassay, involving enzymes or microorganisms C12M, C12Q)
- B23K: SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; WELDING; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM
- B25J: MANIPULATORS; CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES ({manipulators specially adapted for use in surgery A61B34/70; manipulators used in cleaning hollow articles B08B9/04}; manipulators associated with rolling mills B21B39/20; manipulators associated with forging machines B21J13/10; {manipulators associated with picking-up and placing mechanisms B23P19/007}; means for holding wheels or parts thereof B60B30/00; {vehicles with ground-engaging propulsion means, e.g. walking members B62D57/02, B62D57/032; devices for picking-up and depositing articles or materials between conveyors B65G47/90, B65G47/91; manipulators with gripping or holding means for transferring packages B65H67/065}; cranes B66C; {manipulators used in the protection or supervision of pipe-line installations F17D5/00; walking equipment adapted for nuclear steam-generators F22B37/006}; manipulators specially adapted for, or associated with, nuclear reactors G21C; {apparatus used for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor H10P72/50})
- G01M: TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES OR STRUCTURES; TESTING OF STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- B62D: MOTOR VEHICLES; TRAILERS (steering, or guiding on a desired track, of agricultural machines or implements A01B69/00; wheels, castors, axles, increasing wheel adhesion B60B; vehicle tyres, tyre inflation or tyre changing B60C; connections between vehicles of a train or the like B60D; vehicles for use on rail and road, amphibious or convertible vehicles B60F; suspension arrangements B60G; heating, cooling, ventilating or other air treating devices B60H; windows, windscreens, non-fixed roofs, doors or similar devices, protective coverings for vehicles not in use B60J; propulsion plant arrangements, auxiliary drives, transmissions, controls, instrumentation or dashboards B60K; electric equipment or propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles B60L; power supply for electrically-propelled vehicles B60M; passenger accommodation not otherwise provided for B60N; adaptations for load transportation or to carry special loads or objects B60P; arrangement of signalling or lighting devices, the mounting or supporting thereof or circuits therefor, for vehicles in general B60Q; vehicles, vehicle fittings or vehicle parts not otherwise provided for B60R; servicing, cleaning, repairing, supporting, lifting, or manoeuvring, not otherwise provided for, B60S; brake arrangements, brake control systems or parts thereof B60T; air-cushion vehicles B60V; motor-cycles, accessories therefor B62J, B62K; testing of vehicles G01M)

## Abstract

This invention is directed to an automatic inspection system of welding spots in the car body and a control method thereof, the automatic inspection system comprising a controller and a robot arm, a probe device, and a visual system, wherein the robotic arm holds a camera and the probe device, the probe device targets at car body welding spot and form the first included angle with the camera. Many lighting sources are distributed around the camera, which form the second included angle with the camera. The camera is connected with Image Collecting and Processing Device to obtain position data of welding spot in the car body, the controller is connected with Image Collecting and Processing Device by network, and foresaid controller rectifies position of the probe on the robotic arm according to the position of welding spot in the car body.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An automatic inspection system of welding spots in a car body, the system comprising a controller, a robotic arm, a probe device comprising a probe, and a visual system comprising a camera and an image collecting and processing device, wherein the robotic arm holds the camera and the probe device, the probe device aligns with a welding spot in the car body, a first included angle is formed between the camera and the probe device, several lighting sources are distributed around the camera, forming a second included angle with the camera, the camera is connected with the image collecting and processing device to determine the position of the welding spot in the car body, the controller is connected with the image collecting and processing device by a network, and is configured to rectify the position of the probe device on the robotic arm according to the position of the welding spot in the car body.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The automatic inspection system of car body welding spots specified in claim 1, wherein the robotic arm is provided with an aluminum frame support which is installed on the robotic arm by a flange plate, the probe device is fixed on a first L-shaped supporting bar which is perpendicular to and fastened to the aluminum frame support, foresaid camera is fixed on a second L-shaped supporting bar which is connected with the aluminum frame support by a wedge connector.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The automatic inspection system of car body welding spots specified in claim 1, wherein the first included angle is in the range between 30° and 60°, and the second included angle between 30° and 60°.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The automatic inspection system of car body welding spots specified in claim 1, wherein the lighting source is an LED lighting source, and several LED lighting sources are distributed around the external circumference of the camera at equal radian and the light is reflected by a reflector.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The automatic inspection system of car body welding spots specified in claim 1, wherein the probe device comprises a flexible mechanism telescoping in x, y, z direction, the probe device is configured to stretch out during measuring, the probe device comprises an eddy probe 306, a cylinder 301 and related fix parts, wherein the eddy probe 306 is connected with a swinging connection part 307 by a rotatable holding base, the cylinder 301 is fixed on the camera's box, the cylinder 301 is connected with a rotatable holding base of the swinging connection part 307 by a pneumatic slider 303, the swinging connection part 307 is connected with one end of a suspension bracket 305, and another end of the suspension bracket 305 is fixed on the rack 302 by a tension spring 304.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The automatic inspection system of car body welding spots specified in claim 5, wherein the eddy probe 306 comprises a plurality of eddy inspection coils 3063 in linear arrangement.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

An automatic inspection and control method of car body welding spots, employing the automatic inspection system of car body welding spots specified in claim 1, comprising the following steps:
S1: Align the probe on the robotic arm with a welding spot in the car body;
S2: Photograph the position of the welding spot with the camera to obtain images with a certain tilt;
S3: Correct the tilted images with the image collecting and processing device to obtain images as if they were photographed at orthographic projection shooting angle, so as to determine actual position of the welding spot, and calculate the offset between the measured position and a preset point;
S4: Correct position of the probe on the robotic arm according to the offset;
S5: Control the probe to inspect the quality of the welding spot in the car body.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The automatic inspection and control method of car body welding spots specified in claim 7, wherein four robotic arms are distributed around the car body, and a fourths of the car body is covered by each robotic arm, and the position of the probe on the robotic arm is corrected according to the position of the welding spot in the car body.

### Claim 9 (depends on 7)

The automatic inspection and control method of car body welding spots specified in claim 7, wherein, in S2, without obvious difference of gray level between the welding spot and the background, several lighting sources, which form a certain angle with the camera and are controlled by software, lighten the car body successively in different directions and obtain images with different directions of shadow, and the position with concave-convex change is determined as the central position of the welding spot via calculation after superposition of images with different directions of shadow.

### Claim 10 (depends on 7)

The automatic inspection and control method of car body welding spots specified in claim 7, further comprising the steps of presetting a series of referential library for identification of images, identifying the center of a welding spot according to previous optimal parameters in inspecting image of the welding spot of new car body at same position; in the case of inability to identify the center of the welding spot, identifying the center automatically with parameters from the parameter library.

### Claim 11 (depends on 7)

The automatic inspection and control method of car body welding spots specified in claim 7, wherein the telescoping of the probe device is controlled by a movable slider and the probe is upward telescoping during photographing with the camera, and during the inspection after positioning, the probe stretches out to achieve prevention of the probe from sheltering light path and reduce the mechanism volume as soon as possible.

### Claim 12 (depends on 7)

The automatic inspection and control method of car body welding spots specified in claim 7, wherein in Step S5, when the welding spot is nearby a critical point of good and bad result, the waveform with largest difference is selected from the full waveform to identify the location.