Development of a six degree-of-freedom position and orientation sensing device: Design theory and testing

Abstract

This paper focuses on methods of increasing the accuracy of sensor systems for servo controlled articulated structures. Various state-of-the-art motion measuring methods were reviewed and none were found to be entirely suitable for use with articulated structures. Accordingly, a six degree-of-freedom motion measuring system was developed that relied directly (only) on the stability and accuracy of non-contact displacement measuring sensors. A model was tested on a one degree-of-freedom structure and the measured errors were predicted by the error analysis. On the model tested, which had the same error amplification factor as a robot with a 2.3m (90 in.) reach, the one sigma endpoint error was on the order of 13 μm (520 μin.).