SLAM-Integrated Kinematic Calibration Using Checkerboard Patterns

Today it is possible to program industrial robots offline, but there are two problems to consider. First, since any robot has kinematic errors, the absolute accuracy of the robot is not necessarily sufficient. Therefore, kinematic calibration of the robot is indispensable. Secondly, it is useful to accurately measure the surrounding environment of the robot for its motion planning. Therefore, we developed a SKCLAM (Simultaneous Kinematic Calibration, Localization and Mapping) method, in which kinematic calibration and environmental mapping are performed simultaneously for a manipulator with an RGB-D sensor attached to its hand. In this study, in order to make the SKCLAM method more practical, we introduced checkerboard patterns. We verified the SKCLAM method with checkerboard patterns in both a virtual environment and a real environment. The results showed that the effectiveness and some limitations of our current implementation.