Robotic welding is the use of mechanized programmable tools (robots), with which a completely automatic welding process is carried out, both in the welding operation and in holding the piece. Processes such as GMAW Welding, often automated, are not necessarily equivalent to robotic welding, as the human operator sometimes prepares the materials to be welded. Generally, robotic welding is used for Spot Welding and Arc Welding is applied in large-scale production, for example the automobile industry.

Robotic welding is a relatively new application of Robotics, although robots were first introduced to American industry in the 1960s. The use of robots in welding did not take off until the 1980s, when the automotive industry began using robots en masse for spot welding. Since then, both the number of robots used in industry and the variety of their applications have grown greatly. Cary and Helzer suggest that more than 120,000 robots are used in North American industry, about half of which involve welding. Initially, growth was limited by the high cost of equipment, resulting in restricted application in large-scale production.

Robotic arc welding has only recently begun to grow rapidly, and already dominates around 20% of industrial robot applications. The main components of arc welding robots are: the manipulator or mechanical unit and the controller, which acts as the "brain" of the robot. The manipulator is what makes the robot move, and the design of these systems can be categorized into several classes, such as the SCARA") and the Cartesian coordinate robot, which use various coordinate systems to direct the machine's arms.

"Signature image processing" technology has been developed since the late 1990s to analyze real-time electrical data taken from automatic robotic welding, thus facilitating the optimization of welding, and is perfect for prototyping.