Monitoring of the spatiotemporal movement of an industrial robot using a laser tracker

Abstract

The project introduced here describes the geometric inspection of an innovative robot-based production process for spatially curved extruded profiles. The aim was to prove that the trajectories fulfil a given spatiotemporal tolerance level with respect to repeatability and absolute accuracy using an independent, i.e. geodetic, measurement method. In order to inspect this motion regarding spatiotemporal tolerance, it is necessary to synchronize a laser tracker with the control system of the robot with an order of magnitude of micro seconds. This resolution has been achieved by triggered measurements with a Leica LTD500. Very specific and for the production process decisive deviations of the robot trajectory have been detected as well as an extraordinarily high kinematic repeatability of the robot.