ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a number of methods that can effectively compute the base transformation whenever only end-effector positions are available. The transformations of a robotic system that most frequently need to be calibrated are the base and tool transformations. Techniques for base calibration can be classified into those using pose measurements and those using only position measurements. The robot base coordinate frame was placed at the intersection of the first and second joint axes of the PUMA arm. The Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) position indicators were set to zero after driving each axis to its travel limit. A set of 100 position measurement points within the intersection of work volumes of the PUMA and the CMM, from both left- and right-arm configurations of the PUMA robot, was collected in the experiment, among which 50 measurements were used for identification purposes and the other 50 positions were used for calibration verification.
