In today’s world of flexible automation, end-users must be able to rely on the performance of their robot when executing various programs and applications. The ISO 9283 International Standard and the RIA 15.05 Standard define the performance criteria and related testing methods to quantify performance characteristics of manipulating industrial robots. These criteria and tests assess the static and dynamic performance of a robot, related to its accuracy, repeatability, exchangeability, speed, cornering, warm-up drift, etc. Testing a robot’s performance statically and dynamically requires the use of a high-accuracy large-volume 3D or 6DOF measurement system.
Such tests are generally executed by the robot manufacturers themselves, as they develop new robots or search to improve their existing ones. The obtained results are also used for specification purposes of their products – the adherence to a Standard offering the obvious benefit to end-users of being able to compare data between different robot models and brands. But major robot end-users also perform such tests from time to time, often either to obtain more in-depth information about the robot models they are considering using, or to obtain test data relevant to the very specific robot application they are interested in. Another reason is to perform predictive maintenance on an existing production line, by testing the robots annually during downtimes for example.
