Localization algorithms: performance evaluation and reliability analysis

Workpiece localization plays a vital role in automation of many important manufacturing processes, such as workpiece setup, refixturing and dimensional inspection. In this paper, we provide a unified treatment of three geometric algorithms for workpiece localization, and develop new techniques to make these local algorithms globally convergent. We also study and analyze, along with extensive simulation results, their performance with respect to convergence and computational efficiency. Finally, we present a method for analyzing reliability of localization solutions and give a lower bound on the number of measurement points needed for reliable recovering of Euclidean transformations.