Fundamentals Of Manipulator Calibration

Describes the details of the calibration process step-by-step, covering systems modeling, measurement, identification, correction and performance evaluation. Calibration techniques are presented with an explanation of how they interact with each other as they are modified. Shows the reader how to determine if, in fact, a robot problem is a calibration problem and then how to analyze it.

Robot calibration is the process of enhancing the accuracy of a robot by modifying its control software. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the theory and implementation of robot calibration using computer vision technology. It is the only book to cover the entire process of vision-based robot calibration, including kinematic modeling, camera calibration, pose measurement, error parameter identification, and compensation. The book starts with an overview of available techniques for robot calibration, with an emphasis on vision-based techniques. It then describes various robot-camera systems. Since cameras are used as major measuring devices, camera calibration techniques are reviewed. Camera-Aided Robot Calibration studies the properties of kinematic modeling techniques that are suitable for robot calibration. It summarizes the well-known Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) modeling convention and indicates the drawbacks of the D-H model for robot calibration. The book develops the Complete and Parametrically Continuous (CPC) model and the modified CPC model, that overcome the D-H model singularities. The error models based on these robot kinematic modeling conventions are presented. No other book available addresses the important, practical issue of hand/eye calibration. This book summarizes current research developments and demonstrates the pros and cons of various approaches in this area. The book discusses in detail the final stage of robot calibration - accuracy compensation - using the identified kinematic error parameters. It offers accuracy compensation algorithms, including the intuitive task-point redefinition and inverse-Jacobian algorithms and more advanced algorithms based on optimal control theory, which are particularly attractive for highly redundant manipulators. Camera-Aided Robot Calibration defines performance indices that are designed for off-line, optimal selection of measurement configurations. It then describes three approaches: closed-form, gradient-based, and statistical optimization. The included case study presents experimental results that were obtained by calibrating common industrial robots. Different stages of operation are detailed, illustrating the applicability of the suggested techniques for robot calibration. Appendices provide readers with preliminary materials for easier comprehension of the subject matter. Camera-Aided Robot Calibration is a must-have reference for researchers and practicing engineers-the only one with all the information!

With the science of robotics undergoing a major transformation just now, Springer’s new, authoritative handbook on the subject couldn’t have come at a better time. Having broken free from its origins in industry, robotics has been rapidly expanding into the challenging terrain of unstructured environments. Unlike other handbooks that focus on industrial applications, the Springer Handbook of Robotics incorporates these new developments. Just like all Springer Handbooks, it is utterly comprehensive, edited by internationally renowned experts, and replete with contributions from leading researchers from around the world. The handbook is an ideal resource for robotics experts but also for people new to this expanding field.

The book explores the fundamental issues of robot mechanics for both the analysis and design of manipulations, manipulators and grippers, taking into account a central role of mechanics and mechanical structures in the development and use of robotic systems with mechatronic design. It examines manipulations that can be performed by robotic manipulators. The contents of the book are kept at a fairly practical level with the aim to teach how to model, simulate, and operate robotic mechanical systems. The chapters have been written and organized in a way that they can be red even separately, so that they can be used separately for different courses and purposes. The introduction illustrates motivations and historical developments of robotic mechanical systems. Chapter 2 describes the analysis and design of manipulations by automatic machinery and robots; chapter 3 deals with the mechanics of serial-chain manipulators with the aim to propose algorithms for analysis, simulation, and design purposes; chapter 4 introduces the mechanics of parallel manipulators; chapter 5 addresses the attention to mechanical grippers and related mechanics of grasping.

Robot manipulators are developing more in the direction of industrial robots than of human workers. Recently, the applications of robot manipulators are spreading their focus, for example Da Vinci as a medical robot, ASIMO as a humanoid robot and so on. There are many research topics within the field of robot manipulators, e.g. motion planning, cooperation with a human, and fusion with external sensors like vision, haptic and force, etc. Moreover, these include both technical problems in the industry and theoretical problems in the academic fields. This book is a collection of papers presenting the latest research issues from around the world.

A general method for establishing a kinematic model of a robotic manipulator with either a full or partial pose calibration system is developed. The theory applicable to modeling of mechanisms is introduced, as is robotic manipulator calibration. Given a general over-specified kinematic model, a method is developed, with the associated algorithms for a six degree of freedom manipulator, that identifies non-unique parameter sets for any given partial pose measurement system. This method is applied and demonstrated on three existing calibration methods.

In this book we have grouped contributions in 28 chapters from several authors all around the world on the several aspects and challenges of research and applications of robots with the aim to show the recent advances and problems that still need to be considered for future improvements of robot success in worldwide frames. Each chapter addresses a specific area of modeling, design, and application of robots but with an eye to give an integrated view of what make a robot a unique modern system for many different uses and future potential applications. Main attention has been focused on design issues as thought challenging for improving capabilities and further possibilities of robots for new and old applications, as seen from today technologies and research programs. Thus, great attention has been addressed to control aspects that are strongly evolving also as function of the improvements in robot modeling, sensors, servo-power systems, and informatics. But even other aspects are considered as of fundamental challenge both in design and use of robots with improved performance and capabilities, like for example kinematic design, dynamics, vision integration.