A practical calibration process using partial information for a commercial Stewart platform

Most of the calibration methods proposed for the Stewart platform require complex computation or low noise data for the platform's accuracy to be determined. They are not suitable for practical use in a production environment, where the measurement and calibration method should be simple and robust. Using an external laser measuring device to determine the actual accuracy of a Stewart platform, a practical and simple leg length compensating calibration method, that improves the accuracy of the Stewart platform by a magnitude of around 7, is proposed. The procedures and computation algorithms of the calibration method are shown.

[1]  Jian Wang,et al.  Kinematic modeling and calibration of a Stewart platform , 1996, Adv. Robotics.

[2]  Ioannis Z. Emiris,et al.  Robust parallel robot calibration with partial information , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[3]  L. W. Tsai,et al.  Robot Analysis: The Mechanics of Serial and Parallel Ma-nipulators , 1999 .

[4]  Jean-Pierre Merlet,et al.  Parallel Robots , 2000 .

[5]  Zvi S. Roth,et al.  Fundamentals of Manipulator Calibration , 1991 .

[6]  G. R. Dunlop,et al.  Parallel topology robot calibration , 1997, Robotica.

[7]  Lung-Wen Tsai,et al.  Robot Analysis and Design: The Mechanics of Serial and Parallel Manipulators , 1999 .

[8]  Wyatt S. Newman,et al.  A new method for kinematic parameter calibration via laser line tracking , 1993, [1993] Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[9]  Kornel Ehmann,et al.  Calibration of a hexapod machine tool using a redundant leg , 2000 .

[10]  Kornel Ehmann,et al.  Volumetric Error Analysis of a Stewart Platform-Based Machine Tool , 1997 .

[11]  Stephen Wolfram,et al.  The Mathematica Book , 1996 .

[12]  Bhaskar Dasgupta,et al.  The Stewart platform manipulator: a review , 2000 .

[13]  Hanqi Zhuang,et al.  Method for kinematic calibration of stewart platforms , 1993, J. Field Robotics.

[14]  Jian Wang,et al.  On the accuracy of a Stewart platform. I. The effect of manufacturing tolerances , 1993, [1993] Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.