Kinematic model calibration of a 7-DOF capstan-driven haptic device for pose and force control accuracy improvement

Abstract

The literature on kinematic calibration of industrial robots and haptic devices suggests that proper model calibration is indispensable for accurate pose estimation and precise force control. Despite the variety of studies in the literature, the effects of transmission errors on positioning accuracy or the enhancement of force control by kinematic calibration is not fully studied. In this article, an easy to implement kinematic calibration method is proposed for the systems having transmission errors. The presented method is assessed on a 7-DOF Phantom-like haptic device where transmission errors are inherently present due to the use of capstan drives. Simulation results on pose estimation accuracy and force control precision are backed up by experiments.