Calibration is playing an increasingly important role in industrial robotics. Higher accuracy demands are being placed on flexible assembly and manufacturing systems which in turn require robot manufacturers to produce higher quality precision robots. The information obtained from calibrating a robot can be used to compensate errors existing between the model used for robot control and the actual robot, and hence can improve robot accuracy 10-fold. This book not only covers the various aspects of robot calibration - including industrial applications, development work and basic research - but also presents calibration topics in an organized way to make the comprehensive state-of-the-art information more understandable and, above all, readily usable. In essence this book is about determining the actual kinematic and dynamic parameters of multi-axis mechanical systems (for example, large manipulators, milling machines or robots). The focus is on robotic systems used for manufacturing and assembly. Much attention is given to the technical aspects of calibration, and at the same time practical applications are included so that the importance of these techniques to industry is not lost.
This book should be useful for engineers involved in the manufacture of multi-axis systems, as well as those employing such systems for assembly and manufacturing tasks. It should also be of interest to researchers involved in the development of robots, machine tools and manufacturing and assembly systems, as well as graduate engineering students.