Execution of off-line generated and simulated application programs

Presented in this paper is an off-line programming and simulation system developed and demonstrated by the IPK under support of the ESPRIT 623 project. Results of this porject have been used in a range of industrial applications including automotive, shipbuilding, off-shore and space industries. Stresses in this paper is the executability of offline generated and pre-tested (simulated) robot application programs on the "shop floor". This concerns, to a great extent, the absolute positioning accuracy of the robot. In response to this problem, a modelbased calibration procedure has been developed at the IPK and is briefly presented in the second half of this paper. The procedure identifies robot-model parameters which can be used to compensate off-line generated robot poses. Using this technique, a robot's accuracy can be improved to its accuracy limit defined by repeatability.