Whole-body geometric calibration of humanoid robots using classical robot calibration methods is a timeconsuming and experimentally burdensome task. However, despite its significance for accurate control and simulation, it is often overlooked in the humanoid robotics community. To address this issue, we propose a novel practical method that utilizes a single plane, embedded force sensors, and an admittance controller to calibrate the whole-body kinematics of humanoids without requiring manual intervention. Given the complexity of humanoid robots, it is crucial to generate and determine a minimal set of optimal calibration postures. To do so, we propose a new algorithm called IROC (Information Ranking algorithm for selecting Optimal Calibration postures). IROC requires a pool of feasible candidate postures to build a normalized weighted information matrix for each posture. Then, contrary to other algorithms from the literature, IROC will determine the minimal number of optimal postures that are to be played onto a robot for its calibration. Both IROC and the single-plane calibration method were experimentally validated on a TALOS humanoid robot. The total whole-body kinematics chain was calibrated using solely 31 optimal postures with 3-point contacts on a table by the robot gripper. In a cross-validation experiment, the average root-mean-square (RMS) error was reduced by a factor of 2.3 compared to the manufacturer's model.

Robot positioning accuracy is a key factory when performing high-precision manufacturing tasks. To effectively improve the accuracy of a manipulator, often up to a value close to its repeatability, calibration plays a crucial role. In the literature, various approaches to robot calibration have been proposed, and they range considerably in the type of measurement system and identification algorithm used. Our aim was to develop a novel step-by-step kinematic calibration procedure - where the parameters are subsequently estimated one at a time - that only uses 1D distance measurement data obtained through a draw-wire encoder. To pursue this objective, we derived an analytical approach to find, for each unknown parameter, a set of calibration points where the discrepancy between the measured and predicted distances only depends on that unknown parameter. This reduces the computational burden of the identification process while potentially improving its accuracy. Simulations and experimental tests were carried out on a 6 degrees-of-freedom robot arm: the results confirmed the validity of the proposed strategy. As a result, the proposed step-by-step calibration approach represents a practical, cost-effective and computationally less demanding alternative to standard calibration approaches, making robot calibration more accessible and easier to perform.

Abstract-- Calibrating robots into their workspaces is crucial for manipulation tasks. Existing calibration techniques often rely on sensors external to the robot (cameras, laser scanners, etc.) or specialized tools. This reliance complicates the calibration process and increases the costs and time requirements. Furthermore, the associated setup and measurement procedures require significant human intervention, which makes them more challenging to operate. Figure 1: Our self-calibration framework estimates the robotenvironment spatial relationship via compliant exploratory actions. Visualized in green is the environment's pose as currently estimated Often, such robot applications require probing points in the environment, manual operations are still an accurate pose of the robot frame relative to a frame of the often required since existing simulation-based interaction and workspace to be provided by a calibration procedure before outcome prediction [11]-[13] have not shown to generalize task execution.

High absolute accuracy is an essential prerequisite for a humanoid robot to autonomously and robustly perform manipulation tasks while avoiding obstacles. We present for the first time a kinematic model for a humanoid upper body incorporating joint and transversal elasticities. These elasticities lead to significant deformations due to the robot's own weight, and the resulting model is implicitly defined via a torque equilibrium. We successfully calibrate this model for DLR's humanoid Agile Justin, including all Denavit-Hartenberg parameters and elasticities. The calibration is formulated as a combined least-squares problem with priors and based on measurements of the end effector positions of both arms via an external tracking system. The absolute position error is massively reduced from 21mm to 3.1mm on average in the whole workspace. Using this complex and implicit kinematic model in motion planning is challenging. We show that for optimization-based path planning, integrating the iterative solution of the implicit model into the optimization loop leads to an elegant and highly efficient solution. For mildly elastic robots like Agile Justin, there is no performance impact, and even for a simulated highly flexible robot with 20 times higher elasticities, the runtime increases by only 30%.

Current robot calibration techniques rely on specialized equipment and specially trained personnel. To overcome this problem, a recent paper published on arXiv.org It uses point cloud registration techniques to fuse multiple scans of a given scene. The evaluation on multiple real-world scenes on various hardware configurations shows that the achieved precision is similar to that achieved by using traditional methods with a dedicated 3D tracking system. Both, robot and hand-eye calibration haven been object to research for decades.