THIS PROPOSAL OUTLINES A SIMPLE YET ACCURATE APPROACH TO MEASURING THE POSITION AND ORIENTATION OF A ROBOT.

THIS PROPOSAL OUTLINES A SIMPLE YET ACCURATE APPROACH TO MEASURING THE POSITION AND ORIENTATION OF A ROBOT. THE MECHANISM CAN BE USED TO MAKE BOTH STATIC AND DYNAMIC MEASUREMENTS. TWO VERSIONS OF THE DESIGN ARE PROPOSED; THE FIRST VERSION HAVING HIGH ACCURACY OVER A SMALL WORK VOLUME,AND THE SECOND VERSION HAVING LOWER ACCURACY OVER A WORK VOLUME WHICH WOULD ALLOW POSE MEASUREMENT OVER THE ENTIRE WORK ENVELOPE OF MOST INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS. BOTH DESIGNS USE EXACTLY THE SAME ELECTRONICS AND ALMOST THE SAME SOFTWARE, HENCE THEY FORM A CONVENIENT FAMILY OF ROBOT CALIBRATION TOOLS. BECAUSE OF THE MECHANICAL SIMPLICITY OF THE PROPOSEDSYSTEM, AND BECAUSE OF EXTENSIVE PRIOR WORK WHICH HAS BEEN DONE BY INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION, INC. IN SIMILAR AREAS, THE PHASE 1 EFFORT WILL RESULT IN A WORKING PROTOTYPE OF THE LOWER ACCURACY, LARGE WORK VOLUME VERSION OF THE ROBOT CALIBRATION SYSTEM.