In recent years, with the gradual increase in labor costs in China, the "Made in China" economic model supported by cheap labor has become unsustainable. Welding, as an industrial "tailor", is a very important processing method in industrial production. The quality of welding has a decisive impact on product quality. At the same time, due to the presence of welding smoke, arc light, and metal spatter, the working environment of welding is very harsh. With the development of advanced manufacturing technology, achieving automation, flexibility, and intelligence in welding product manufacturing has become an inevitable trend. The use of robot welding has become the main symbol of welding technology automation.

1. The Important Significance of Welding Robot Application

(1) The quality of the weld seam is stable, ensuring its uniformity. Welding parameters such as welding current, voltage, welding speed, and dry elongation have a decisive effect on the welding results. When using robot welding, the welding parameters of each weld seam are constant, and the quality of the weld seam is less affected by human factors, reducing the requirements for worker operation skills, so the welding quality is stable. However, during manual welding, the welding speed, dry elongation, and other factors vary, making it difficult to achieve uniformity in quality.
(2) Improved working conditions. Using robot welding, workers only need to perform some simple parameter adjustments to stop and start operations, away from welding arcs, smoke, and splashes. For spot welding, workers do not need to carry bulky manual welding tongs, freeing them from high-intensity physical labor.
(3) Improve labor productivity. Robots can produce continuously for 24 hours. With the application of high-speed and efficient welding technology, the use of robot welding has significantly improved efficiency
(4) Clear product cycle, easy to control product output. The production rhythm of robots is fixed, so the production schedule is very clear.
(5) Shorten the cycle of product redesign and reduce the corresponding equipment investment. Can achieve welding automation for small batch products. The biggest difference between robots and specialized machines is that they can adapt to the production of different workpieces by modifying the program

2. Current research status of welding robot technology

At present, research on welding robot technology at home and abroad mainly focuses on seven aspects: robot welding process, welding robot system simulation technology, robot specific arc welding power supply technology, coordinated control technology of multiple robots and peripheral equipment, weld seam tracking technology, robot offline programming and path planning technology, and remote control welding technology.

3. The development trend of welding robot technology

(1) Virtual reality
Virtual reality technology is a technology that decomposes and recombines the reality of events in space and time, including 3D computer graphics technology, interactive interface technology with multifunctional sensors, and high-definition display technology. It can be used in telepresence communication and remote control for humans.
(2) Welding robot control system
Open and modular control systems will be the focus of research on welding robot control systems. Other research hotspots include standardization and networking of PC based networked controllers and robot controllers.

4. Conclusion

It is undeniable that welding robot technology has played a very important role in both the past and current industrial development, and will definitely continue to play an increasingly important role in the future. In recent years, China has conducted extensive research on robot arc welding power sources, simulation technology and offline programming, information sensing, intelligent control, and weld seam tracking, and has made breakthroughs in multiple technologies. I believe that in the near future, welding robots will provide us with higher quality and efficient services in an increasingly wide range of fields.