Geometrical calibration and uncertainty estimation methodology for a novel self-propelled miniature robotic machine tool

•Novel calibration solution for a Stewart–Gough platform.•New robotic developments such as the self-propelled hexapod considered in this paper require autonomous calibration solutions to accurately identify the kinematics of the robot before each use, this implies on-board metrology means, no operator intervention and fully automated solution.•Such a solution is presented in the paper.•Novel calibration configuration evaluation methodology in design phase.•A novel and powerful analytical methodology that supports the design of calibration solutions is presented. This methodology is a step forward from the well-known observability index methodology that has been reported in the robot calibration literature. Besides enabling the comparison of different calibration configurations, it is possible now to estimate the uncertainties of the identified parameters. The new methodology is compared to observability indexes and is also experimentally validated.