Optical setup for assembly robot characterization

The paper deals with the subject of robot calibration. With particular reference to assembly robots, a brief introduction of the mathematical approach to the problem is presented. It is shown that two independent type of measurements can be carried out to obtain data for calibration. A first optical set-up is used to measure robot gripper orientations along straight trajectories. The system is based on laser triangulation. A second set-up is used to measure X,Y,Z position of the robot gripper programmed to follow a number of proper straight trajectories. The paper also presents some experimental results from the calibration of a commercial SCARA robot.