Multi-sensor measurement system for robotic drilling

A multi-sensor measurement system for robotic drilling is presented. The system enables a robot to measure its 6D pose with respect to the work piece and to establish a reference coordinate system for drilling. The robot approaches the drill point and performs an orthogonal alignment with the work piece. Although the measurement systems are readily capable of achieving high position accuracy and low deviation to perpendicularity, experiments show that inaccuracies in the robot's 6D-pose and especially slippage on the work piece when exerting clamping force considerably impact the results. With the current robotic drilling system an average position deviation of 0.285 mm and an average deviation to perpendicularity of 0.27° are achieved.