Learning Siamese networks for laser vision seam tracking

To design a stable laser vision seam-tracking system, an advanced weld image processing algorithm based on Siamese networks is investigated and proposed to resist the interference of arc and spatter in the welding process. This specially designed neural network, combined with powerful feature expression capabilities of deep learning, takes two welding images with different sizes as inputs and generates a target confidence map in a single forward pass by using the cross-correlation algorithm. To prevent the error accumulation and model drift, an online update strategy via local cosine similarity is developed. The use of metal inert-gas welding can realize real-time and precious tracking under the condition that the strong arc continuously shields the welding seam feature points. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America.