Fast and Low-Cost Robotic Hand-Eye Calibration of Point Laser Sensor

Abstract This paper introduces an automatic calibration method for a point laser displacement sensor mounted on the end-effector of a 6-Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) anthropomorphic robot arm, designed for object localization in industrial inspection tasks. The approach leverages an uncalibrated external 2D eye-to-hand camera to track the laser spot on a fixed target across multiple robot poses. The proposed method autonomously estimates the parameters of the transformation matrix between the laser sensor and the robot’s end-effector adopting active robot control. Preliminary experimental results demonstrated an accuracy of ±1.5 mm and a precision of ±0.7 mm, with convergence achieved within minutes using data collected from 45 distinct poses. A low-cost, off-the-shelf 2 MP camera was employed, enabling a cost-effective and plug-and-produce calibration process suitable for industrial applications.