The virtualized welding system utilized in this study (shown in Fig. 3)consists of two workstations — a welding station and virtual station. In the virtual station, a human welder
can view the mockup where the weld pool images (from direct viewing oreye view camera) is rendered and displayed,and moves the virtual welding torch accordingly as if he/she is right
in front of the workpiece. The human welder movement is accurately cap-tured by a Leap motion sensor, and the obtained 3D virtual welding torch tip coordinates will be sent to the PC.
The robot arm equipped with the welding torch receives commands viaEthernet from the PC including the next pose (robot tool 3D position and orientation) and robot tool movement
speed. It then executes the command and sends the current robot tool position back to the PC.