PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of a laser tracker, a laser interferometer system and a telescopic ballbar for assessing the positioning performance of a six‐axis industrial serial robot. The paper also aims to illustrate the limitations of these three metrology instruments for the assessment of robot positioning performance and to demonstrate the inadequacy of simplistic performance tests.Design/methodology/approachSpecific test methods in the case of the laser interferometer system and the telescopic ballbar are proposed. Measurements are analyzed in accordance to the ISO 9283 norm.FindingsIt is found that, in static conditions and after a relatively short warm‐up, the unidirectional position repeatability of the non‐calibrated industrial robot under study (an ABB IRB 1600) is better than 37 μm, the unidirectional orientation repeatability is at worst 87 μrad, the linear position accuracy is better than 650 μm, and the rotation accuracy is at worst 2.8 mrad (mainly because of the sixth robot axis). It was also found that the dynamic (radial) errors due to vibrations can be up to approximately ±250 μm along a small circular path at TCP speed of 700 mm/s.Practical implicationsIt is pointed out that the use of a laser tracker (or any other large range portable 3D measurement system) is questionable for assessing – let alone analyzing in depth – the unidirectional position repeatability of some of today's industrial robots. It is also demonstrated that the laser interferometer system can be used for measuring linear errors along a linear path of motion as well as angular errors about axes orthogonal to the path of motion. Finally, it is shown that the telescopic ballbar is an excellent, comparably low‐cost, high‐precision tool for assessing the static and dynamic positioning performance of industrial robots and its use in robotics should be further developed.Originality/valueThis work is the first to detail the use of three metrology equipments for assessing the positioning performance of an industrial robot. Experimental results are presented and discussed. Some guidelines for optimizing the positioning performance of an industrial robot are provided.

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SUMMARYThe absolute accuracy of a small industrial robot is improved using a 30-parameter calibration model. The error model takes into account a full kinematic calibration and five compliance parameters related to the stiffness in joints 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The linearization of the Jacobian is performed to iteratively find the modeled error parameters. Two coordinate measurement systems are used independently: a laser tracker and an optical CMM. An optimized end-effector is developed specifically for each measurement system. The robot is calibrated using fewer than 50 configurations and the calibration efficiency validated in 1000 configurations using either the laser tracker or the optical CMM. A telescopic ballbar is also used for validation. The results show that the optical CMM yields slightly better results, even when used with the simple triangular plate end-effector that was developed mainly for the laser tracker.

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