A novel hand-eye semi-automatic calibration process for laser profilometers using machine learning

•A semi-automatic calibration process is proposed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of hand-eye calibration.•A hand-eye calibration postures generation model is developed to automatically drive the robot and machine tool to the target postures for calibration.•A machine-learning method is extended to process the profile data collected by laser profilometers, which is faster, more robust and accurate than existing methods.