Kinematic calibration of a 6-DOF parallel manipulator based on identifiable parameters separation (IPS)

•This calibration method begins with identifiable parameters separation (IPS).•The purpose of the IPS is illustrated and the rules of the IPS are summarized.•The result of the IPS is to obtain subsets of the geometric parameters.•A subset of geometric parameters is easily identified without complex error modeling.•The identification model for the remaining geometric parameters can be simplified.