A new approach of kinematic geometry for error identification and compensation of industrial robots

Abstract

A new approach for kinematic calibration of industrial robots, including the kinematic pair errors and the link errors, is developed in this paper based on the kinematic invariants. In most methods of kinematic calibration, the geometric errors of the robots are considered in forms of variations of the link parameters, while the kinematic pairs are assumed ideal. Due to the errors of mating surfaces in kinematic pairs, the fixed and moving axes of revolute pairs, or the fixed and moving guidelines of prismatic pairs, are separated, which can be concisely identified as the kinematic pair errors and the link errors by means of the kinematic pair errors model, including the self-adaption fitting of a ruled surface, or the spherical image curve fitting and the striction curve fitting. The approach is applied to the kinematic calibration of a SCARA robot. The discrete motion of each kinematic pair in the robot is completely measured by a coordinate measuring machine. Based on the global kinematic properties of the measured motion, the fixed and moving axes, or guidelines, of the kinematic pairs are identified, which are invariants unrelated to the positions of the measured reference points. The kinematic model of the robot is set up using the identified axes and guidelines. The results validate the approach developed has good efficiency and accuracy.

Keywords

Kinematics robots calibration link errors kinematic pair errors

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Nubiola

Bonev

. Absolute robot calibration with a single telescoping ballbar. Precis Eng 2014; 38: 472–480.

Nubiola

Bonev

. Absolute calibration of an ABB IRB 1600 robot using a laser tracker. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2013; 29: 236–245.

Nof

. Handbook of industrial robotics, New York, NY: John Wiley, 1999.

Elatta

Gen

Zhi

et al.

An overview of robot calibration. Inform Technol J 2004; 3: 74–78.

Zhang

. Online robot calibration based on hybrid sensors using Kalman filters. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2015; 31: 91–100.

Marie

Courteille

Maurine

. Elasto-geometrical modeling and calibration of robot manipulators: application to machining and forming applications. Mech Mach Theory 2013; 69: 13–43.

Santolaria

Brosed

Velázquez

et al.

Self-alignment of on-board measurement sensors for robot kinematic calibration. Precis Eng 2013; 37: 699–710.

Santolaria

Ginés

. Uncertainty estimation in robot kinematic calibration. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2013; 29: 370–384.

Klimchik

Pashkevich

Chablat

et al.

Compliance error compensation technique for parallel robots composed of non-perfect serial chains. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2013; 29: 385–393.

10.

Denavit

. A kinematic notation for lower-pair mechanisms based on matrices. J Appl Mech-Trans ASME 1955; 22: 215–221.

11.

Hayati

Mirmirani

. Improving the absolute positioning accuracy of robot manipulators. J Robot Syst 1985; 2: 397–413.

12.

Stone HW and Sanderson AC. Statistical performance evaluation of the S-model arm signature identification technique. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation. Proc IEEE 1988: 2: 939–946.

13.

Kazerounian

Qian

. Kinematic calibration of robotic manipulators. J Mech Des 1989; 111: 482–487.

14.

Zhuang

Roth

Hamano

. A complete and parametrically continuous kinematic model for robot manipulators. IEEE Trans Robot Autom 1992; 8: 451–463.

15.

Meng

Zhuang

. Autonomous robot calibration using vision technology. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2007; 23: 436–446.

16.

Zhao

Yang

et al.

Kinematic-parameter identification for serial-robot calibration based on POE formula. IEEE Trans Robot Autom 2010; 26: 411–423.

17.

Yang

et al.

A minimal kinematic model for serial robot calibration using POE formula. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2014; 30: 326–334.

18.

Okamura

Park

. Kinematic calibration using the product of exponentials formula. Robotica 1996; 14: 415–421.

19.

Chen

Yang

Tan

et al.

Local POE model for robot kinematic calibration. Mech Mach Theory 2001; 36: 1215–1239.

20.

Klimchik

Caro

et al.

Geometric calibration of industrial robots using enhanced partial pose measurements and design of experiments. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2015; 35: 151–168.

21.

Messay

Ordóñez

Marcil

. Computationally efficient and robust kinematic calibration methodologies and their application to industrial robots. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2016; 37: 33–48.

22.

Abderrahim

Khamis

Garrido

et al.

Accuracy and calibration issues of industrial manipulators. In: Huat

(ed). Industrial Robotics: Programming, Simulation and Applications. InTech 2006, pp. 817–829.

23.

Nubiola

Slamani

Bonev

. A new method for measuring a large set of poses with a single telescoping ballbar. Precis Eng 2013; 37: 451–460.

24.

Meng

Zhuang

. Self-calibration of camera-equipped robot manipulators. Int J Robot Res 2001; 20: 909–921.

25.

Jang

Kim

Kwak

. Calibration of geometric and non-geometric errors of an industrial robot. Robotica 2001; 19: 311–321.

26.

Abderrahim

Whittaker

. Kinematic model identification of industrial manipulators. Robot Comput-Integr Manuf 2000; 16: 1–8.

27.

Khalil

. Geometric calibration of robots with flexible joints and links. J Intell Robot Syst 2002; 34: 357–379.

28.

Beyer

Wulfsberg

. Practical robot calibration with ROSY. Robotica 2004; 22: 505–512.

29.

Albert

Mohamed

Ahmed

et al.

Comparison of two calibration methods for a small industrial robot based on an optical CMM and a laser tracker. Robotica 2014; 32: 447–466.

30.

Rauf

Pervez

Ryu

. Experimental results on kinematic calibration of parallel manipulators using a partial pose measurement device. IEEE Trans Robot 2006; 22: 379–384.

31.

Joubair

Bonev

. Non-kinematic calibration of a six-axis serial robot using planar constraints. Precis Eng 2015; 40: 325–333.

32.

Meggiolaro MA and Dubowsky S. An analytical method to eliminate the redundant parameters in robot calibration. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation. Proc ICRA IEEE 2000; 4: 3609–3615.

33.

Rauf A and Ryu J. Fully autonomous calibration of parallel manipulators by imposing position constraint. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation. Proc IEEE 2001; 3: 2389–2394.

34.

Joubair

Bonev

. Kinematic calibration of a six-axis serial robot using distance and sphere constraints. Int J Adv Manuf Tech 2015; 77: 515–523.

35.

Mooring

Driels

Roth

. Fundamentals of manipulator calibration, New York: John Wiley, 1991.

36.

Rao

Toutenburg

Shalabh et al.

Linear models and generalizations: least squares and alternatives, New York: Springer, 2008.

37.

Fletcher

. Practical methods of optimization, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2013.

38.

Omodei

Legnani

Adamini

. Three methodologies for the calibration of industrial manipulators: experimental results on a SCARA robot. J Robotic Syst 2000; 17: 291–307.

39.

Shang

Cong

. Optimal calibration and identification of a 2-DOF parallel manipulator with redundant actuation. Int J Robot Automat 2015; 30: 333–344.

40.

Ziegert

Datseris

. Robot calibration using local pose measurements. Int J Robot Autom 1990; 5: 68–76.

41.

ASME B89.3.4-2010. Axes of rotation: methods for specifying and testing, New York: American National Standards Institute, 2010.

42.

Wang

et al.

Invariant errors of discrete motion constrained by actual kinematic pairs. Mech Mach Theory 2018; 119: 74–90.

43.

Wang

. Kinematic differential geometry and saddle synthesis of linkages, Singapore: John Wiley, 2015.

44.

Wang

et al.

Error calibration of controlled rotary pairs in five-axis machining centers based on the mechanism model and kinematic invariants. Int J Mach Tool Manuf 2017; 120: 1–11.

45.

Wang

et al.

The kinematic invariants in testing error motion of machine tool linear axes. Mechanism and machine science: proceedings of ASIAN MMS 2016 & CCMMS 2016, Singapore: Springer, 2017, pp. 1525–1540.