Identification of geometric parameters of a parallel robot by using a camera calibration technique

This work reports a novel method to estimate the geometrical parameters of a 2-(3-RRPS) parallel robot intended for manufacturing tasks. The method uses camera calibration techniques, and it is based on the concept of vertex space. The advantage of this technique is that the system does not require complex electronic instrumentation, and only uses a CCD camera as a main sensor and planar patterns, which makes it portable, accurate and low cost. To ensure the quality of the measurements, a methodology for characterization of the measurement system is included. The applicability and the advantages of using the proposed method are shown by means of the estimation of the geometrical dimensions of a spatial parallel manipulator with a relatively complex kinematic architecture. Experiments are conducted and show a significant improvement in manipulator accuracy when the parameters estimated with this technique are used.