Automatic guidance system for welding torches and the like

Abstract

Apparatus for guiding a welding torch, slave mechanism or the like, including a probe or guide wherein the torch follows or traces the path of the probe, both as the probe (1) follows a basic straight, curved, or otherwise changing spatial or three dimensional path and (2) as it departs from the direction of the basic path or seam because of defects of rather short duration, or of sudden changes in lateral and/or vertical abutments or surfaces against which the probe travels, wherein the path of the welding torch or slave mechanism is caused to trace the path traveled by the probe or guide, and not merely to duplicate the path in a stepwise functional relationship therewith. The apparatus includes means by which the probe directs its own travel along a predetermined path, whether planar or spatial, and detects deviations therein; it further includes memory means by which the signals of the probe and the deviations therein are retained within the apparatus, and utilized to cause the slave to trace the path of the probe or guide. The invention includes the circuitry and the portions thereof by which the objects of the invention are obtained and the apparatus is caused to function, as well as the apparatus itself.