Automatic calibration of space based manipulators and mechanisms

Four tasks in manipulator kinematic calibration are summarized. Calibration of a seven degree of freedom manipulator was simulated. A calibration model is presented that can be applied on a closed-loop robot. It is an expansion of open-loop kinematic calibration algorithms subject to constraints. A closed-loop robot with a five-bar linkage transmission was tested. Results show that the algorithm converges within a few iterations. The concept of model differences is formalized. Differences are categorized as structural and numerical, with emphasis on the structural. The work demonstrates that geometric manipulators can be visualized as points in a vector space with the dimension of the space depending solely on the number and type of manipulator joint. Visualizing parameters in a kinematic model as the coordinates locating the manipulator in vector space enables a standard evaluation of the models. Key results include a derivation of the maximum number of parameters necessary for models, a formal discussion on the inclusion of extra parameters, and a method to predetermine a minimum model structure for a kinematic manipulator. A technique is presented that enables single point sensors to gather sufficient information to complete a calibration.