TOLERANCE SPECIFICATION OF ROBOT KINEMATIC PARAMETERS USING AN EXPERIMENTAL-DESIGN TECHNIQUE - THE TAGUCHI METHOD

This paper presents the tolerance specification of robot kinematic par ameters using the Taguchi method. The concept of employing inner and o uter orthogonal arrays to identify the significant parameters and sele ct the optimal tolerance range for each parameter is proposed. The per formance measure based on signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) using the Taguc hi method is validated by Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, a step-by- step tolerance specification methodology is developed and illustrated with a planar two-link manipulator and a five-degree-of-freedom Rhino robot.