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Industrial robots are well introduced into automated production processes. Their mechanical design is dominated by some major key factors like required flexibility, different payload demands, working range, working speed, combination with different working tools and robot costs. The final achieved position accuracy of the robot tool centre point (TCP) is based on the combination of these key factors. In general, the smallest movement steps and the repeatability of robots are much lower than the absolute achievable accuracy. The positioning results and especially the programmed paths of the TCP show relatively large differences between the programmed nominal paths related to the final achieved movements in reality. These differences can be detected using the Absolute Tracker with its very high dynamic performance, especially if the 6DoF capability is included.

This paper describes ongoing research into Metrology-integrated robot control. The research is a part of an ongoing EU funded aircraft industry project – ADFAST*. The ADFAST project tries to implement the use of industrial robots in low-volume production, high-demand-on-accuracy operations and for dynamic force compensation. To detect and compensate deflection in industrial robots during a process, the robot uses a metrology system. The metrology system supervises the tool center point of the robot as it executes its processes. Leica has recently released a new metrology system; the LTD800, which measures distances with laser interferometry and can simultaneously measure orientation of targets, through photogrammetry, using an additional camera on top of the measuring unit. This paper will describe theory and results from tests performed on integrating the LTD800 with the robot.