Abstract
It is well known that identification of geometric parameters can significantly enhance the accuracy of robot manipulators. A number of different approaches to manipulator calibration have been demonstrated in the recent literature. A part of the calibration process that is common to all of the proposed techniques is the collection of a dataset that relates the measured position and possibly the orientation of the end-effector to the joint displacements for a number of poses. This data-acquisition step is usually the most tedious part of the calibration process. Accurate location of points on the end-effector can be quite time consuming to accomplish manually and the equipment for automated data acquisition is expensive.
The purpose of this work, therefore, is to demonstrate a simplified approach to acquiring the data necessary for manipulator calibration. In the proposed approach, the only equipment used for data measurements is a flat plate and a test block mounted on the end of the robot arm. To demonstrate the method, a model and an identification algorithm for a PUMA 560 manipulator are developed. The data-collection process is described and the procedure is validated through a computer simulation. Finally, an experiment is conducted whereby data is collected for a PUMA manipulator and used to identify the kinematic parameters. The resulting manipulator model leads to a significant improvement in accuracy.
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Tang, G.R., Mooring, B.W. Plane-motion approach to manipulator calibration. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 7, 21–28 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02602947
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02602947