Sensor Monitoring during Tack Welding of Aerospace Components

In the 21st century, a growing attention is being paid to the implementation of sensor monitoring systems for innovative production environments based on the conviction that monitoring and control of manufacturing processes is an essential issue to fabricate products with very high quality. In an effort towards zero defect manufacturing concept implementation, an on-line sensor system was developed by incorporating modern technologies of 2D laser distance measurements for process monitoring and control during tack welding of nickel base alloy aerospace components. The system extracts relevant sensorial features from laser line position and intensity signals and integrates them to provide one sensor fusion pattern feature vector to be fed to cognitive paradigms for decision making on desired tack welding process outcome.