Correlation Analysis of Factors Influencing the Motion Planning Accuracy of Articulated Robots

The motion planning accuracy of articulated robots can be increased by augmenting them with an objective function. Parameters that influence the absolute accuracy of 6-axis articulated robots can be integrated into such objective functions. However, it is still unclear how to prioritize the various influencing factors so that they can be utilized together instead of separately. Here, it is shown how to rate these factors by analyzing and comparing their impact on the accuracy of the robot. The factors manipulability, smoothness, gear backlash caused by direction change of axis rotation, joint space distance and robot layout are studied in this regard. The evaluation with a 6DoF laser tracker reveals that manipulability and smoothness have the biggest impact. With these results it is possible to combine multiple factors into a comprehensive function and achieve a higher accuracy without the necessity of applying any hardware upgrades.