Calibration of a multiple axes 3-D laser scanning system consisting of robot, portable laser scanner and turntable

A multiple axes 3-D laser scanning system consisting of a portable 3-D laser scanner, a industrial robot and a turntable is demonstrated. By using a criterion sphere, a robot tool center point (TCP) calibration approach is proposed to calibrate the relation between the laser 3-D scanner and the robot end-effector. In this approach, two different translational motions of robot are first made to determine the rotation part, and then at least three different rotational motions are made to determine the translation part. Meanwhile, by using the criterion sphere, a turntable approach is proposed to calibrate the pose of the turntable relative to the robot. In this approach, several rotational angles of turntable and two different heights of the sphere are made to determine the rotational axis of turntable. Experiment is performed on a portable laser scanner mounted on an industrial robot ABB IRB4400 with a turntable. The experiment results show that the two proposed calibration algorithms are stable and flexible. The application of 3-D measurement is also given to demonstrate the effectiveness and stability of the multiple axes 3-D laser scanning system. (c) 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.