An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial Robots
MultiCal is an affordable, high-precision measuring device designed for the on-site calibration of industrial robots. Its design features a long measuring rod with a spherical tip that is attached to the robot. By restricting the rod’s tip to multiple fixed points under different rod orientations, t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5717 |
| _version_ | 1797592611901407232 |
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| author | Ziwei Wan Chunlin Zhou Zhaohui Lin Huapeng Yan Weixi Tang Zheng Wang Jun Wu |
| author_facet | Ziwei Wan Chunlin Zhou Zhaohui Lin Huapeng Yan Weixi Tang Zheng Wang Jun Wu |
| author_sort | Ziwei Wan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | MultiCal is an affordable, high-precision measuring device designed for the on-site calibration of industrial robots. Its design features a long measuring rod with a spherical tip that is attached to the robot. By restricting the rod’s tip to multiple fixed points under different rod orientations, the relative positions of these points are accurately measured beforehand. A common issue with MultiCal is the gravitational deformation of the long measuring rod, which introduces measurement errors into the system. This problem becomes especially serious when calibrating large robots, as the length of the measuring rod needs to be increased to enable the robot to move in a sufficient space. To address this issue, we propose two improvements in this paper. Firstly, we suggest the use of a new design of the measuring rod that is lightweight yet has high rigidity. Secondly, we propose a deformation compensation algorithm. Experimental results have shown that the new measuring rod improves calibration accuracy from 20% to 39%, while using the deformation compensation algorithm, the accuracy increases from 6% to 16%. In the best configuration, the calibration accuracy is similar to that of a measuring arm with a laser scanner, producing an average positioning error of 0.274 mm and a maximum positioning error of 0.838 mm. The improved design is cost-affordable, robust, and has sufficient accuracy, making MultiCal a more reliable tool for industrial robot calibration. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:56:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0081729b13ff4387a44b2ba264e521f9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:56:36Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-0081729b13ff4387a44b2ba264e521f92023-11-18T12:35:06ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-06-012312571710.3390/s23125717An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial RobotsZiwei Wan0Chunlin Zhou1Zhaohui Lin2Huapeng Yan3Weixi Tang4Zheng Wang5Jun Wu6College of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310063, ChinaCollege of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310063, ChinaSchool of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310030, ChinaSchool of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, ChinaCollege of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310063, ChinaSchool of Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, ChinaCollege of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310063, ChinaMultiCal is an affordable, high-precision measuring device designed for the on-site calibration of industrial robots. Its design features a long measuring rod with a spherical tip that is attached to the robot. By restricting the rod’s tip to multiple fixed points under different rod orientations, the relative positions of these points are accurately measured beforehand. A common issue with MultiCal is the gravitational deformation of the long measuring rod, which introduces measurement errors into the system. This problem becomes especially serious when calibrating large robots, as the length of the measuring rod needs to be increased to enable the robot to move in a sufficient space. To address this issue, we propose two improvements in this paper. Firstly, we suggest the use of a new design of the measuring rod that is lightweight yet has high rigidity. Secondly, we propose a deformation compensation algorithm. Experimental results have shown that the new measuring rod improves calibration accuracy from 20% to 39%, while using the deformation compensation algorithm, the accuracy increases from 6% to 16%. In the best configuration, the calibration accuracy is similar to that of a measuring arm with a laser scanner, producing an average positioning error of 0.274 mm and a maximum positioning error of 0.838 mm. The improved design is cost-affordable, robust, and has sufficient accuracy, making MultiCal a more reliable tool for industrial robot calibration.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5717calibration devicekinematic calibrationon-site calibrationindustrial robotaccuracy measurement |
| spellingShingle | Ziwei Wan Chunlin Zhou Zhaohui Lin Huapeng Yan Weixi Tang Zheng Wang Jun Wu An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial Robots Sensors calibration device kinematic calibration on-site calibration industrial robot accuracy measurement |
| title | An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial Robots |
| title_full | An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial Robots |
| title_fullStr | An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial Robots |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial Robots |
| title_short | An Improved Design of the MultiCal On-Site Calibration Device for Industrial Robots |
| title_sort | improved design of the multical on site calibration device for industrial robots |
| topic | calibration device kinematic calibration on-site calibration industrial robot accuracy measurement |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/12/5717 |
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