Automatic offline program calibration in robotic cells

The latest trends show that industrial robots have been used more and more to increase productivity and quality in general industries other than the traditional automotive industry. Instead of programming the robot by teaching the positions, offline programming has become more popular. User can simulate the programs in the computer first and the productivity can be increased tremendously. One critical step for the offline programming is that the robot cell needs to be calibrated first before the programs can be used in real world. This paper will introduce sensor based calibration methods to automatically calibrate the tool-data and work-object of the robot program.