An investigation of singularities in robot kinematic chains aiming at building robot calibration models for off-line programming

Robot Calibration is a term applied to the procedures used in determining actual values that describe the geometric dimensions and mechanical characteristics of a robot or multibody structure. A robot calibration system must consist of appropriate robot modeling techniques, accurate measurement equipment, and reliable model parameter determination methods. For practical improvement of a robot's absolute accuracy, error compensation methods are required that use calibration results. Important to robot calibration methods is an accurate kinematic model that has identifiable parameters. This parameterized kinematic model must be complete, continuous and minimal. This work concerns to the implementation of techniques to optimize kinematic models for robot calibration through numerical optimization of the mathematical model. The optimized model is then used to compensate the model errors in an off-line programming system, enhancing significantly the robot kinematic model accuracy. The optimized model can be constructed in an easy and straight operation, through automatic assignment of joint coordinate systems and geometric parameter to the robot links. Assignment of coordinate systems by this technique avoids model singularities that usually spoil robot calibration results

Theoretical and practical aspects of robot calibration with experimental verification

One of the greatest challenges in today's industrial robotics is the development of off-line programming systems that allow drastic reduction in robots' reprogramming time, improving productivity. The article purpose is to pave the way to the construction of generic calibration systems easily adapted to any type of robot, regardless their application, such as modular robots and robot controllers specifically designed for non-standard applications. A computer system was built for developing and implementing a calibration system that involves the joint work of computer and measurement systems. Each step of this system's development is presented together with its theoretical basis. With the development of a remote maneuvering system based on ABB S3 controller experimental tests have been carried out using an IRB2000 robot and a measurement arm (ITG ROMER) with 0.087 mm of position measurement accuracy. The robot model used by its controller was identified and the robot was calibrated and evaluated in different workspaces resulting in an average accuracy improvement from 1.5 mm to 0.3 mm

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved