A laser articulating robotic system (LARS) for high-power material processing applications

Abstract

A robotic system for manipulating a high-power laser beam is described. The system consists of a 6 axis gantry robot with copper mirrors for laser beam manipulation and associated computer controllers. One significant feature of the system is an optical sensing which controls robot motions during processing, thus allowing complex contours to be followed without time consuming manual programming. Future applications and plans for the system are briefly discussed.