ES2274736B1 - WELDING SIMULATION DEVICE. - Google Patents

Abstract

Welding simulator device, characterized in that it comprises: a simulated welding gun whose dimensions and user controls correspond to a welding gun, said simulated welding gun having a position and orientation sensor; a simulated welding equipment or box whose user controls correspond to a welding equipment or box; a virtual reality helmet with three degrees of freedom and a position sensor; said gun and said equipment being connected through a communication device to a control device.

Description

Device for welding simulation.

The present invention refers to a welding simulation device.

In particular, the present invention makes reference to a welding simulation device especially  suitable for simulation of arc welding, although The invention is not necessarily limited to this application. Said simulation device may be used both to form as if, eventually, to train or evaluate welders.

In welding, the welder's good performance it is critical for obtaining a good quality of welding. Since the completion of welding requires a High quality performance in a hostile environment, the cost of the hand Quality welder work is very high. Not however It is always easy to obtain the desired quality. Therefore, the correct welder training is critical to increase quality  of the welds made. However, one of the problems to when training welders is to obtain a reproduction sufficiently adequate and safe from real welding environments, since welding equipment and materials are very expensive high. However, proper welder training requires provide welders with a remarkable specific previous experience for each situation, said experience being acquired in conditions of complete security.

Due to the high cost of equipment and materials welding, most of the training centers cannot pay the costs derived from the amount of material not reusable that involve welding practices. Therefore, simulation devices of welding that are usable for learning new welders, as well as in the improvement, evaluation or reeducation of Welders and veterans. An objective of such simulators is simulate welding by providing adequate learning to welder in practice without incurring material costs not Reusable and safe.

However, such simulators remain excessively expensive, they are not applicable to all situations and, in general, they do not provide the trainer with an experience close enough to reality so that it is Useful. For example, the VRsim company counts among its applications with a technology-based welding simulation device haptic (contact sensors) comprising a robot arm, the which is an ideal medium as a force feedback element, but of very high economic cost and, due to the conditions which imposes the arm and haptic technology currently available, It has certain limitations.

In short, the simulators so far known results are very high cost and / or do not cause simulation sufficiently adequate to cause a adequate welder training.

It is an objective of the present invention to give know a welding simulator that solves the problems before raised.

It is another objective of the present invention to give know a simulator that increases the possibilities in terms of types of materials, work scenarios, simulation of inclement weather or spot lighting, simulation of different types of equipment (masks, control boxes and guns) avoiding accidents due to burns, high tensions or sparks, especially common in the hands and of remarkable severity In the face and eyes.

It is another objective of the present invention, provide a simulator that is useful, convenient, compact, practical and transportable.

The simulator device object of the present invention is based on the use and maintenance of interfaces and performance of welding equipment commercially available combined with virtual reality techniques to simulate, as much as possible, a real work situation.

For this, the present invention consists of a welding simulator device comprising:

- a simulated welding gun whose dimensions and user controls correspond to a gun welding, said simulated welding gun having a position and orientation sensor;

- a simulated welding equipment or box whose User controls correspond to a device or box welding;

- a virtual reality helmet with six degrees of freedom and a position sensor;

said gun and said equipment being connected through a communication device to

- a control device that, in turn, understands:

-

media of reception of the signals coming from the user controls cited and the information from the aforementioned sensors position;

-

media of simulation of the physical welding conditions from the information from the gun and equipment;

-

media of visualization to produce an image to be reproduced by the virtual reality helmet corresponding to the vision of the welder from the conditions simulated by the simulation means and of the information from the hull position sensor of virtual reality.

Through this configuration you get the following advantages:

- the welder's hand interacts with elements that faithfully reproduce the actual welding elements (gun, control box) and can be used in its manufacture housings of said elements, lowering costs. With the invention you can faithfully reproduce almost any grip position of gun that can be given on site. According to the tests made by the inventors, the forced modification of the grip of the gun causes a clear decrease in the quality of welding, so it is advantageous that the gun of the simulator corresponds, in its functional dimensions, with a real gun

- The required virtual reality helmet can to be a commercially available virtual reality helmet available, not being necessary to manufacture and / or adapt a mask of specific welding, which lowers costs.

- The required sensor system is simple, which decreases the cost in sensors, devices electronic communications and computing devices necessary.

- In addition, the set of elements allows, if desired, not computationally simulate all behavior physical of the materials with the corresponding saving of means computational Indeed, given the proper simulation of conditions obtained by the present invention will result sufficient, if desired, that the simulation means generate a sequence of prerecorded images and sounds corresponding to a set of welding action parameters.

- On the other hand, the reproduction of the controls of the box or welding equipment also causes training of the welder in the correct administration of the parameters of welding variables at your will, as well as procedures of adjustment in work.

In a particularly preferred way, the simulator device will also have means to simulate and reproduce the sound of welding, preferably taking into Account for the generation of simulated sound parameters such as welding current intensity, welding voltage and The speed of the welding wire.

This feature is extremely important for the correct simulation of certain conditions Welding For example, in conditions of poor visibility, the sound is an important fact that allows the experienced welder guide and control welding. Hence the utility of making a good simulation not only of physical characteristics visible dimensions of the weld but also of the sound reproduced

As for the position sensors, it will result preferred that they can provide information on the position and gun orientation with six degrees of freedom and one precision less than 1 mm, since this precision will depend that the simulation means of the control device produce and transmit reliable information to the virtual reality headset for the welder about the welding he is doing.

As for the simulation gun, the sensor or set of gun sensors can provide the control device, directly or indirectly, information on the position, inclination (angle with respect to the plane of welding), arc distance (relative to said plane and gun) and position of the gun control or controls. Therefore, the sensor will present six degrees of freedom. To do this, the sensor also It can comprise a system or set of individual sensors. In In principle, the gun sensors can all be connected to the control device, although it will be possible, in some cases, connect them to the control box.

According to an embodiment especially Preferably, the control device will comprise memory means electronics to store geometric data that may correspond to the workspace, the piece to be welded and the gun. The combination of geometric workspace and part data welding with the gun position sensor makes unnecessary the arrangement of sensors in the workpiece, simplifying enormously the device and allows to position the position sensor at any fixed point of the gun. Such geometric data they can be captured before simulation and stored in a electronic memory, and / or may be captured online, for example, through cameras.

In a preferred embodiment, the simulated box of control may comprise an outer casing of equipment welding (also called "welding box") in whose an electronic control device can be placed inside it may comprise a programmable electronic board or a board non-programmable electronics, custom made, for control of peripherals and transmission of information to the device control.

The virtual reality helmet may be of type commercially available and its function is to reproduce images, and preferably sound, corresponding to the vision that the welder in the physical welding conditions calculated by the simulation means and from the point of view in which find. For a better reproduction of the conditions of welding, the virtual reality helmet will be equipped with vision Stereoscopic The associated sensor (or "tracker") will allow preferably follow the movements of the user's head in actual position and will be connected to the control device via a communications connection, such as USB or port series, for example.

The term "virtual reality helmet" does not It should be construed as restricted to a specific geometric shape. From in fact, many devices encompassed under the name "helmet of virtual reality "does not fully cover the cranial area of the user, being geometrically more similar to glasses.

Based on information from sensors, preferably, the control device will present means for determining the speed of the gun. This may be carried out, for example, by computational means in function of the information provided by the sensor and a clock electronic.

In another preferred embodiment, the device will have means of simulating the behavior of a reel welding wire in the welding gun, for example, determine when the reel has run out and not continue with the welding simulation.

As for the means of simulation, these present a structure based on engines, to allow parallel operation thereof. Among these engines are You can find:

- a particle simulator that preferably will comprise means to calculate from the received data by the control device the following parameters:

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shape of particle

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color of particle

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size of particle

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weather of particle

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position

-

speed;

arranging the media control device to transmit said simulated parameters to the rest of the modules or control device motors, such as:

- a welding cord simulator;

- a collision detector between the tip of the gun and weld bead calculated by the simulator Weld.

The display means may comprise a generated image filter to filter the produced image according to the filtering pattern of a photosensitive filter of a mask welding before reproduction by the hull of virtual reality. In this way, the virtual reality helmet can reproduce the image that the welder would see through the mask of welding and, in addition, the type of optical filter of The welding mask.

Finally, the control device may have a welding defect assessment module (weld bead defects, etc.).

For a better understanding of the invention, attached by way of explanatory example but not limiting, some drawings of an embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of some elements corresponding to a possible realization of device object of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a connection scheme between the different elements of the example in figure 1.

Figure 1 shows the external elements of a possible embodiment of the device object of the present invention. Said embodiment corresponds to a device of MIG / MAG type welding simulation (metal welding with gas, Inert or Active respectively).

In the figure you can see different connected components:

- a simulated welding gun (1), which in this case comprises a real welding gun housing (102), with its corresponding control or actionable trigger (101);

- an equipment (2) or simulated welding box that it also includes in this case the outer casing of a device or commercially available welding box with its corresponding controls, such as the number indicated with the numeral (201) and the potentiometer indicated with numeral (202);

- a virtual reality helmet (6), whose function is to provide images to the user corresponding to the that the welder would have in the event of a weld real and, preferably, reproduce the sound of welding;

- a control device (3) that in this case it has been represented as a PC, although it could be a specific electronic device, or a combination of PC programmable and electronic devices to perform the functions required

In the case shown, it has also been represented a spool of welding wire (5), a bottle (4) that simulates a welding gas cylinder, with its corresponding control (401), as well as a clamp (9). These last components, although they are not strictly necessary, can contribute to a better simulation of the actual conditions, the device being able to control if the clamp (9) has been connected, or the status of the control (401) of the gas bottle (4), for example, opening.

Additionally, additionally, in the example shown connections have been made between the different elements of simulated welding, similar to a welding device real. For example, the connection cable (103) between the gun (1) and the box assembly (2) and reel (5), or the connection (901) between the clamp (9) and the box (2). Also they have been represented other connections of the simulator device, such as the connection (301) between the control device (3) and the box (2), or the connection (601) between the control device (3) and the helmet (6) of virtual reality. Of course, they will also be Possible other connections.

Although not represented in Figure 1, in usage arrangement, the simulator must be completed with a piece or parts to be welded located in a welding space. Too sound reproductive elements may be included for Reproduction of a simulated welding sound.

Then it goes on to describe with greater detail the different elements that make up the device simulator object of the present invention.

Gun

The gun (1) comprises a sensor or more properly a sensor system or set of individual sensors (not shown) that preferably provide the device control (3) data for it to determine or measure, by Direct reading or prior calculation, the following variables of physical character:

- position of the welder's hand (angle of incidence)

- thread speed

- thread extension (stick out)

- gun speed

- board position

The drag system simulation and quality of the thread (depending on the type of thread considered) is performed only for welding simulations of MIG / MAG type.

The control (101) of the gun (1) is operable e, like the position sensor, provides information on its status to the control device (3) either directly or to through the control equipment (2).

The position and orientation sensor of the gun (1) must present six degrees of freedom and an error less than a millimeter to allow a welding simulation of adequate quality. Said sensor is one of the most device reviews, therefore, in addition to accuracy, the sensor must be sufficiently free of interference and must ensure proper maintenance of gun ergonomics (1). He Sensor used can be magnetic technology ("Wanda" or "Space Pad" by Ascension Technolgies), of MOCAP technology, guided by lasers and opticians. According to the tests and studies made by the inventors, these will be advantageously of laser-guided technology, for example a "Laser Bird" sensor marketed by Ascension Technologies, since they present a great precision and the impact on the ergonomics of the gun is minimum.

Welding equipment (box)

Within the housing, the welding equipment comprises electronic and communication devices that transmit information to the control device regarding the status of the different user controls (201), (202) or of variables directly dependent on them. The particular embodiments of said electronic and communication devices will depend on the degree of customization that is
wish.

In a first possibility, the team of welding will internally comprise a custom circuit board,  option that may be the cheapest.

In a second possibility, the team of welding can comprise a programmable plate, for example a Commercially available "Embbeded" PC board, which allows program peripherals (user controls) through Standard operating systems such as Linux. You must also add the corresponding communications inputs / outputs. This possibility is more expensive facing the final cost of the equipment, it is, However, easier to implement.

The function to be carried out is to detect the signals from the controls and send them (after an eventual processed) to the control device. Can also eventually provide for an update of operating parameters. For the board will have, for example, a serial or USB port for communication with the control device and a CAN bus to receive parameter updates, for example, from a PC maintenance. A communications system can also be provided with the gun that, preferably, will take into account the possibility of using different types of guns.

The welding equipment plate may also govern the screens and lights simulating the operation of a real welding equipment.

Virtual reality headset (Head Mounted Display)

In a preferred way, the reality helmet virtual may present the following characteristics

- stereoscopic vision

- built-in sensor of at least three degrees of freedom (3 angles of rotation).

Examples of suitable and commercially available virtual reality helmets could be I-Glasses SVGA with headphones, Cy-visor DH-400, CyberMind HiRes900, CyberMInd Visette Pro and 5DT HMD800 .

In addition, these virtual reality helmets or HMDs need for the present application an associated sensor or tracker that allows to follow the movements of the user's head in real time, for example via serial or USB port connection. This sensor can be, for example, an Intersense Intertrax 2, Intersense InertiaCube 2 or a 3D Bird .

Work environment

The simulation device must have information about the work environment and the piece to be welded.

Geometric information about the environment and the piece to be welded (shape, position) can be purchased before to the use of the device and stored in memory media electronic control device, or it can be supplied online to the control device through, by example of a camera system. In this case, for example, it will be advantageous that the piece or pieces to be welded are of one color determined to determine your situation. This implies the disadvantage of providing the device with new devices and require greater computing needs, in exchange for a total freedom, for example, to move pieces.

Control Device

As indicated, the system must respond in real time to the actions performed by the welder in practices depending on the defined welding variables. This must be achieved with an electronic type device that understand the necessary computational media and instructions necessary to govern the different peripheral elements of the device (image and sounds to play, etc ...).

In short, the control device must have means to:

- receive signals from the controls of user and sensors (control module),

- simulate the physical welding conditions a from the information received (simulation module), and

- generate the image, and preferably sound, to play in the virtual reality helmet from simulated physical conditions and position information and virtual reality helmet orientation (module display).

For this, the control device will consist in a combination of communications, electronic devices, equipped with the appropriate instructions. The device may be advantageously based on PC architecture with peripherals suitable for functions.

In the preferred case that must be provided to the control device, in advance, the geometric data (shape, position) of the environment, or of the piece to be welded, this store this information in the corresponding memory electronic, being available to the media that execute the simulation of physical conditions (simulation module).

They can also be stored in memory electronic information on the geometry of the gun, such so that the control device can determine the position of the tip of the gun without the need for the position sensor be in that precise place.

Advantageously, the control device will be configured to understand:

- a welding particle simulator; from according to the present invention, the particle simulator preferably calculate the shape, color size and life of the particles detached from the welding wire, as well as their position and speed;

- a welding cord simulator starting of the simulation performed by the particle simulator of welding;

- a virtual collision detector between the Calculated cord and gun.

With all the data obtained in the module simulation, and the geometric data of the welding space and the piece to be welded, as well as information from the hull of virtual reality, the display module generates the image at show in the display helmet. For vision helmets stereoscopic, two images will be generated, one for each eye of the Username. Also the display module of another module independent coordinated with it will generate the welding sound simulated to reproduce.

The display module may have information regarding filtering patterns of different masks usable in simulated welding to filter according to the pattern Adequate calculated image.

Additionally, the control device may have a welding evaluation module carried out during simulation

Figure 2 schematically represents the functionality of different connections between different elements.

This figure shows that the device control (3), which in the case of dealing with or understanding a PC could be connected to a computer network (1000), such as a Ethernet network, is connected to the virtual reality headset (6) to transmit the images and, eventually, the sound to be transmitted. The control PC is also connected to the welding equipment simulated (2), for example through a serial connection or a USB connection The control PC, if desired, can also be connected via a sensor bus (1003) to the gun welding (1) and even, eventually, to other sensors or cameras (7) corresponding to the workspace. Alternatively, the connection of these elements with the control device also can be done through simulated welding equipment (2). On the other hand, the welding team can present buses own control (1002) for other elements such as the gun  (1) (or other auxiliary controls related to the gas bottle (4) or the clamp (9), for example). Obviously, the properties of own control bus will depend on the design of the elements to connect. Finally, the connection team can present, if necessary, a connection (1004) with a PC (8) via bus DOG.

There are numerous device variants here shown that they will be obvious to the person skilled in the art and that shall be considered as included herein invention.

In general, everything that does not affect, alter, change or modify the essence of what is described, it will be understood within the present invention.

Claims (22)

1. Welding simulator device, characterized in that it comprises: - a simulated welding gun whose dimensions and user controls correspond to a gun welding, said simulated welding gun having a position and orientation sensor; - a simulated welding equipment or box whose User controls correspond to a device or box welding; - a virtual reality helmet with three degrees of freedom and a position sensor; said gun and said equipment being connected through a communication device to - a control device that, in turn, understands:

-

media of reception of the signals coming from the user controls cited and the information from the aforementioned sensors position;

-

media of simulation of the physical welding conditions from the information from the gun and equipment;

-

media of visualization to produce an image to be reproduced by the virtual reality helmet corresponding to the vision of the welder from the conditions simulated by the simulation means and of the information from the hull position sensor of virtual reality.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said position sensors have six degrees of freedom. 3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the gun sensor provides information on its position with an error of less than one millimeter. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the simulated welding equipment or box comprises the outer housing corresponding to a real welding equipment or box and an electronic device for control of the user controls and communication with the control device Device according to claim 4, characterized in that said electronic device for controlling simulated welding equipment comprises a non-programmable electronic board. Device according to claim 4, characterized in that said electronic device for controlling simulated welding equipment comprises a programmable plate. 7. Device according to any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the virtual reality helmet is commercially available. 8. Device according to any of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the virtual reality helmet is stereoscopic vision. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the control device comprises means for measuring the speed of the gun. 10. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the control device comprises electronic memory means for storing geometric data corresponding to the workspace and / or the workpiece. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the device comprises at least one chamber for providing geometric data corresponding to the workspace and the workpiece. 12. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the control device comprises electronic memory means for storing geometric data of the gun. 13. Device according to any of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the device further comprises a sound simulator and means for reproducing the simulated sound. 14. Device according to claim 13, characterized in that the sound simulator has as calculation parameters data from the welding equipment relating to welding current intensity, welding voltage and welding wire speed. 15. Device according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that the means for reproducing a simulated sound comprise sound players integrated in the virtual reality helmet. 16. Device according to any of claims 9 to 15, characterized in that the simulation means comprise: - a particle simulator; - a welding cord simulator; - a collision detector between the tip of the gun and weld bead calculated by the simulator Weld. 17. Device according to claim 16, characterized in that the control device comprises a thread spool simulator capable of detecting the end of the spool. 18. Device according to claim 16 or 17, characterized in that the particle simulator comprises means for calculating the following parameters from the data received by the control device,

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shape of particle;

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color of particle;

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size of particle;

-

weather of particle life;

-

position;

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speed;

having the device control means for transmitting said parameters to the simulator of welding bead and to the means of display 19. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 18, characterized in that the display means have filter means for filtering the image produced according to the filtering pattern of a photosensitive filter of a welding mask. 20. Device according to any of claims 1 to 19, characterized in that the gun position and orientation sensor is a laser-guided technology system. 21. Device according to any of claims 1 to 20, characterized in that the virtual reality helmet has six degrees of freedom. 22. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 21, characterized in that the control device has a welding defect evaluation module.