1992 年 58 巻 5 号 p. 859-864
Nowadays numerous industrial robots are increasingly applied to complicated and precise operations such as assembly. So precise estimation of performance characteristics of a robot, such as positioning accuracy, orientating accuracy, path accuracy and soon, is being necessary for both users and manufacturers of robots. However it is difficult to measure the position and orientation of a robot moving in wide 3-D (three dimensional) space without contact, in real time and with high accuracy. In this paper a system using ultrasonic waves is proposed. The principle is a triangulation using distances between transmitters attached to a robot arm and receivers placed around the work space of the robot. An electric spark which works as a non-directional point source of ultrasound is used as a transmitter. This system is simple and economical compared with that using laser beams or LED. Moreover the accuracy is good because it measures distances directly from the time-of-flight of an ultrasonic pulse. In this first report the principle and a trial manufacture are dealt with.