An improved kinematic calibration method for serial manipulators based on POE formula

Existing measurement equipments easily determine position with high precision. However, they evaluate orientation with low precision. It is necessary to minimize the effect of measurement error on identification accuracy. In this study, a method for kinematic calibration based on the product of exponentials (POE) is presented to improve the absolute positioning accuracy of a sliding manipulator. An error model with uniform and generic modeling rules is established in which the tool frame is selected as the reference frame. Furthermore, the redundant parameters of the error model are removed. Subsequently, the actual kinematic parameters are identified by using the least square method. Finally, the process of the improved method is discussed. Kinematic calibration simulations of a sliding manipulator are implemented. The results indicate that the proposed method significantly improves the precision of the sliding manipulator. The improved POE kinematic calibration method offers convenience, efficiency, and high precision. The proposed method can be applied to all types of serial robots with n-DOF.