Algebraic technique for the stiffness model reduction in elastostatic calibration of robotic manipulators

The paper deals with elastostatic calibration of a serial industrial robot. In contrast to other works, all compliance sources associated with both links and joints elasticity are taken into account. Particular attention is paid to the model parameters identification using end-point measurements only. For such experimental setup, the model is transformed into the form suitable for calibration with the sufficient rank of the corresponding observation matrix. The main contributions are in developing algebraic, physical and heuristic techniques that allow user to obtain complete model with minimal number of parameters. The advantages of the developed approach are confirmed by an experimental study that deals with identification of the elastostatic model parameters for a 6 dof serial industrial robot.