The narcissistic robot: Robot calibration using a mirror

Abstract

We present a novel method for calibration of a robotic manipulator. The robot kinematic chain and its tool are observed by a hand mounted camera through a mirror. We show the possibility of enabling hand-eye, hand-tool, and kinematic robot calibration without incorporating accurate external references, except the mirror. Using this particularly simple setup, hand-eye calibration becomes independent of the kinematic chain and parameter observability constraints in kinematic calibration become more relaxed, which makes pose planning for robot calibration more convenient.