Calibration of Robotic Woodworking Machinery Using a Motion Capture System

Abstract

An industrial robotic manipulator is typically employed for object transportation and welding, which does not generate high contact force in industrial applications. Miyagawa Koki Co., Ltd., Japan applied a robotic manipulator to woodworking machinery because of less contact force in machining. However, machining errors may occur due to intrinsic dimensional errors in a robotic manipulator itself and its installation. Because woodworking does not require as much accuracy as metal machining, this study focuses on using a motion capture system for calibration, which is relatively inexpensive and enables to measure multiple positions simultaneously by using markers. This paper presents a model-based approach to calibration of woodworking machinery by measuring configuration errors at the tool-tip by using a motion capture system. The effectiveness of the proposed system is demonstrated experimentally.