Kinematic calibration of serial robot using dual quaternions

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose an error model for serial robot kinematic calibration based on dual quaternions. Design/methodology/approach The dual quaternions are the combination of dual-number theory and quaternion algebra, which means that they can represent spatial transformation. The dual quaternions can represent the screw displacement in a compact and efficient way, so that they are used for the kinematic analysis of serial robot. The error model proposed in this paper is derived from the forward kinematic equations via using dual quaternion algebra. The full pose measurements are considered to apply the error model to the serial robot by using Leica Geosystems Absolute Tracker (AT960) and tracker machine control (T-MAC) probe. Findings Two kinematic-parameter identification algorithms are derived from the proposed error model based on dual quaternions, and they can be used for serial robot calibration. The error model uses Denavit–Hartenberg (DH) notation in the kinematic analysis, so that it gives the intuitive geometrical meaning of the kinematic parameters. The absolute tracker system can measure the position and orientation of the end-effector (EE) simultaneously via using T-MAC. Originality/value The error model formulated by dual quaternion algebra contains all the basic geometrical parameters of serial robot during the kinematic calibration process. The vector of dual quaternion error can be used as an indicator to represent the trend of error change of robot’s EE between the nominal value and the actual value. The accuracy of the EE is improved after nearly 20 measurements in the experiment conduct on robot SDA5F. The simulation and experiment verify the effectiveness of the error model and the calibration algorithms.