Glossary · Robotics
Robot calibration
Also known as: Kinematic calibration
German: Roboterkalibrierung
In robotics, robot calibration is the process of identifying the deviations between a robot's nominal kinematic model and its real geometry, such as link lengths, joint offsets and elasticity, and compensating them in the controller to improve absolute positioning accuracy.
- Robotics
In one sentence
Robot calibration measures deviations between the robot's model and its real geometry and compensates them to improve absolute accuracy.
Example
Because the programs are generated offline, the robots are calibrated with a laser tracker so that simulated positions match the real cell within 0.5 mm.
How it applies
- Engineering: Robots are usually far more repeatable than accurate. Calibration matters wherever positions come from outside the robot: Offline programming, vision guidance or robot replacement.
- Maintenance: After a motor or gearbox exchange, or a collision, the axis zero positions (mastering) must be restored; a full kinematic calibration may be needed for accurate applications.
- Documentation: The documentation team should separate mastering (zero referencing) from kinematic calibration, list the triggers for each, and record results in the maintenance history, similar to other Calibration records.
Robot calibration vs. mastering
Mastering sets the zero reference of each joint axis. Robot calibration improves the whole kinematic model. Both affect accuracy, but they use different procedures and tools.