Adaptive welding for shipyards

Reports on an aggressive project to develop an advanced, automated welding system, being completed at Babcock & Wilcox, CIM Systems. This system, the programmable automated welding system (PAWS), involves the integration of both planning and control technologies to address the needs of small batch robotic welding operations. PAWS is specifically designed to provide an automated means of planning, controlling, and evaluating critical welding situations in shipyard environments to improve productivity and quality. Five varieties (wall, lathe, floor mount, cantilevered, and gantry) of PAWS welding systems currently exist.