ABSTRACT
An error budget is a tool for predicting and managing variability in an engineering system. Error budgets are particularly important for systems with stringent accuracy requirements such as robots, machine tools, coordinate measuring machines, and industrial automation systems. To provide reasonable predictions of accuracy, an error budget must include a systematic account of error sources that may affect a machine. Error sources include structural compliance, thermally induced deflections, and imperfections in machine components. An error budget must transmit these error sources through the system and determine the effects on the position of end effectors, work-pieces, and/or cutting tools. Ultimately, an error budget should combine the effects of multiple error sources to determine overall system performance which is often determined by the tolerances held on finished goods.
