Abstract
In this paper, we propose a position and orientation measurement system based on shape estimation of elastic rod. The proposed system consists of an elastic rod, a 6-axes force/torque sensor and a PC with a display for real time measurement and display. The tip end of the elastic rod is attached to an object to be measured while its base end is fixed to the ground through the force/torque sensor. The system calculates the position and orientation of the object in real-time through estimating the shape of the elastic rod from the force and torque information. The shape estimation can be achieved by a simple recursive computation from force/torque information at the base end, based on a discretized model which approximates a continuum elastic rod with a serial-chain of rigid bodies connected with passive elastic joints. We show a numerical example to verify the effectiveness of the proposed calculation method.
