Calibration of a Motoman P8 robot based on laser tracking

Calibration of a Motoman P8 robot using an SMX, Inc. laser-based coordinate measuring system is presented. Since the coordinate measuring device is capable of reporting absolute coordinates, unconstrained by any calibration template, it offers highly accurate measurement of poses selected for convenience of parameter identification. It is shown that measurements obtained using the circle-point analysis technique and the highly accurate SMX coordinate measuring device provide insight into the ability to successfully calibrate an industrial robot.