Error Analysis of a Sub-millimeter Real-Time Target Recognition System with a Moving Camera

This paper discloses a method for simple and efficient optical coupling of a robotic arm with a tool with unknown location without exerting forces to the tool. Current solutions involve moving the robot in force-control mode and coupling by means of a manual gripper. This poses the problem with the transfer of unwanted forces to the tool while attempting to secure the design. With the intrinsic solution presented here, the camera is placed on the coupling axis and thence measures the distance and orientation to the target, the user will have the ability to safely guide the robotic arm towards the tool and smoothly couple the tool with the robot’s end effector. The mechanical prototype is not here described; this paper emphasizes the image processing, consequent data interpretation and general approach. After the explanation of the technique, its theoretical performance limit was examined and confirmed against the practically achieved performance.