Continuous Calibration for Robots in Manufacturing environments

Missouri S&T researchers have developed a Kinematic Error Observer algorithm using laser tracking measurements to compare to the robot’s reported measurements, creating a virtual 7th axis. This error observer can communicate the data from the virtual axis to the robot which can be used for a variety of applications including internal model position compensation and mitigating end effector loading. This technology will enable a higher accuracy of the robot in manufacturing applications, such as in milling. By using the virtual 7th axis rather than an instantaneous measurement error, low-level robot access or true real-time loops do not need to be implemented. As a result, this Kinematic Error observer is broadly applicable to off-the shelf robots.

Applications

• Higher accuracy of the robot in manufacturing applications

Additional Details