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A low-cost approach for self-calibration of climbing robots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2011

Mahmoud Tavakoli ,
Lino Marques  and
Aníbal T. de Almeida
Mahmoud Tavakoli*
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra 3030-290, Portugal. E-mails: mahmoud@isr.uc.pt, lino@isr.uc.pt, adealmeida@isr.uc.pt
Lino Marques
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra 3030-290, Portugal. E-mails: mahmoud@isr.uc.pt, lino@isr.uc.pt, adealmeida@isr.uc.pt
Aníbal T. de Almeida
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra 3030-290, Portugal. E-mails: mahmoud@isr.uc.pt, lino@isr.uc.pt, adealmeida@isr.uc.pt
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mahmood.tavakoli@gmail.com
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Summary

High accuracy is usually difficult to obtain with a robotic arm installed on a mobile base, since the errors of the base are transferred to the manipulator. This paper proposes a method to address this problem through integration of a self-calibration algorithm and low-cost sensors. The self-calibration algorithm might be repeated several times during execution of a mission by the robot and is only based on the internal sensors of the robot, meaning that external observers or reference point transceivers (e.g., ultrasonic transceivers) are not used. The proposed self-calibration system was implemented on a pole climbing robot and effectively improved the positioning accuracy of the climbing arm.

Keywords

Climbing RobotsMobile ArmsSelf CalibrationAccelerometersGripperPositioning Error
Type
Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 29 , Special Issue 1: Robotic Self-X Systems , January 2011 , pp. 23 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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