Programming of Welding Robots in Shipbuilding

The use of robots in shipbuilding in particular for welding plays an important role for shipyards to reduce costs and overcome the lack of skilled welders. When using robots in shipbuilding one major subject is to find a suitable method for robot programming because one-off production in combination with conventional methods often leads to an unfavorable ratio of programming time to welding time. This paper gives an overview of different robot programming methods in shipbuilding starting from CAD-based methods through hybrid solutions with the use of sensor data to sensor-based approaches completely integrated in the production process.