A distance error based industrial robot kinematic calibration method

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a distance accuracy-based industrial robot kinematic calibration model. Nowadays, the repeatability of the industrial robot is high, while the absolute positioning accuracy and distance accuracy are low. Many factors affect the absolute positioning accuracy and distance accuracy, and the calibration method of the industrial robot is an important factor. When the traditional calibration methods are applied on the industrial robot, the accumulative error will be involved according to the transformation between the measurement coordinate and the robot base coordinate. Design/methodology/approach – In this manuscript, a distance accuracy-based industrial robot kinematic calibration model is proposed. First, a simplified kinematic model of the robot by using the modified Denavit–Hartenberg (MDH) method is introduced, then the proposed distance error-based calibration model is presented; the experiment is set up in the next section. Findings – The experimental results show that the proposed calibration model based on MDH and distance error can improve the distance accuracy and absolute position accuracy dramatically. Originality/value – The proposed calibration model based on MDH and distance error can improve the distance accuracy and absolute position accuracy dramatically.