This proposal is for a joint research project between two NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers: the Edison Welding Institute at Ohio State University and the Measurement and Control Engineering Center at the University of Tennessee. The joint project which is to be cost shared by both Centers is to conduct research on the development of a visual sensory system to determine quality control factors of a weld. The study will explore ways to improve the visual imaging system now used to control the weld bead size and tracking to one that incorporates the identification and extraction of visual (sensor) descriptive measurements, which have a strong correlation with the weld pools desired quality control properties in real time. At present, no such system exists and the industrial benefits of such a system has significant economic benefits to U.S. industries. A woman undergraduate will augment the research by studying and analyzing the capability of the image processing to assess the weld quality. The Program Manager recommends that Ohio State University be awarded $22,789 for one (1) year for their part of a joint project with the University of Tennessee's Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Measurement and Control Engineering. This includes $5,000 from the "Funding for Support of Women, Minority, and Disabled Engineering Research Assistants" program.
