Automatic identification of the parameters of dynamics of industrial robots

In this paper a pragmatic method is presented, how the parameters of the dynamics of an industrial robot can be determined. This method can be easily automated and can be applied to a broad class of industrial robots. The parameters of the dynamics of the single links or arm parts, such as the mass, the coordinates of the center of gravity and the inertia matrix are not identified separately here. The parameters are determined in combination. The identified model is sufficient for different control schemes. The results achieved here are appropriate and were confirmed by simulations with Matlab and tested on the industrial robot TX60L of the company Stäubli. The equations of the dynamics are mainly influenced by the first three axes. Though the identification of the parameters for these axes is preferred. In comparison to the common used least squares methods this pragmatic method can be applied in an automatic way. The identification process is very fast. An application of the pragmatic method to more industrial robots with articulated structure should not pose the biggest hurdle, but the availability of similar interfaces like LLI (Low Level Interface) is a prerequisite. The interfaces should allow at least the access to the actuating torques, the joint positions and the joint velocities.