Kinematic calibration and pose measurement of a medical parallel manipulator by optical position sensors

The application of a parallel manipulator requires kinematic calibration of the base and tool transformation in order to eliminate the errors resulting from manufacturing and assembly of connecting parts. In this paper, a calibration method of base and tool transformation is developed by virtue of optical position sensors. Error model for calibration is constructed and an iterative calibration procedure is introduced. In addition, the pose measurement using a commercial 3D position measurement system, OPTOTRAK 3020, is described. Simulation and experiment results show that the method effectively improves the accuracy of manipulator.