Abstract
A method is described for the inverse calibration of a manipulator or robot. Inverse calibration is defined to be finding the joint angles necessary to drive a robot to a desired endpoint location. The joint angles recommended by the robot controller's internal model will not, in general, drive the robot to the desired location because of inaccuracies in this model. Inverse calibration seeks to reduce the error. The method consists of finding approximation functions by which corrections are made to the encoder readings recommended by the robot's internal model. The inverse calibration is tested on a six DOF PUMA simulation. Results show that the endpoint location error can be reduced from an average of about 1.2 mm down to an average of about 0.12 mm.