An automated method to calibrate industrial robot kinematic parameters using Spherical Surface constraint approach

This paper describes our new method and updated system for industrial robot kinematic parameters calibration. The system consists of an IRB 120 industrial robot, a laser tool attached to the robot's end-effector, a rotatable position sensitive detector (PSD), and a PC based controller. In the process of calibration, the surface of the PSD can be rotated around a fixed center, and the center points of PSD surface keep in a same 3D spherical surface. In the each position, the laser beams with small angles are aimed at the surface of the PSD and the laser spots are automatically located to the center of rotatable PSD. The calibration algorithm with different optimization objective functions have been adopt to identify the robot parameters. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of both the sensitivity analysis and the developed system.