Cognex Calibration Benefits

Dec.13.2019 Feana.Yang
1 © 2019 Cognex Confidential
 Normal NPoint Calibration
Calibration Time
• There should be a way to mark the robot tool end so that camera can see the point in FOV
During runtime
• Robot needs to change tool to hold part. This tool will bring change the Home2D position.
• The relationship between CalbiratedHome2D and actualHome2D is unknown
• This position change also changes robot’s gesture which brings uncertainty in robot move.

Pos A Pos A Pos B

CalibratedHome2D ActualHome2D
CalibratedHome2D

Calibration Time Run Time

Cam2D Cam2D

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 Normal NPoint Calibration
1. During runtime, vision will calculate how much(dx,dy,dT) robot should move the part to
target Pose based on CalibratedHome2D.
2. If (dx,dy,dT) is applied(rotate dT first, then move dx, dy) to a different Home2D, the
result of move would be wrong.
Result Pos
Target Pos Target Pos
dy
Pos after rotation Pos after rotation
Current Pos dx Current Pos
dT

Pos A Pos B CalibratedHome2D

ActualHome2D CalibratedHome2D dT
CalibratedHome2D

Cam2D (dx,dy,dT) apply will move current pos to The same (dx,dy,dT) will move
target pose based on CalibratedHome2D part to wrong pos based on
ActualHome2D

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 Normal NPoint Calibration
1. The relationship between Result Pos from ActualHome2D has no fixed relationship to
Target Pos, thus, can not be compensated by offset x, offset y, offset Theta. This will lead to
low accuracy
2. What’s more, as robot’s gesture changes, calibration data actually doesn’t apply to new
position, for example, robot linear status may change at Pos B or may have some
movement limit at Pos B, this all lead to uncertainty of align accuracy
Result Pos Target Pos
Target Pos Target Pos Target Pos
dy
Result Pos
Pos after dy
Pos after Pos after Pos after
rotation rotation rotation
dx
dx rotation
dx
dT Current Pos
Current Pos Current Pos Current Pos dT

CalibratedHome2D CalibratedHome2D CalibratedHome2D CalibratedHome2D

dT
dT

Align in CalibratedHome2D Apply in ActualHome2D Align in CalibratedHome2D Apply in ActualHome2D

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 Cognex Hand-Eye Calibration
▪ Instead of using different positions for calibration and runtime, Cognex
Hand-eye Calibration calibrate and run at the same position
• ActualHome2D is the same coordinated that robot got calibrated
• Robot has no gesture change

ActualHome2D =
CalibratedHome2D CalibratedHome2D

Cam2D Cam2D

Calibration Time Run Time

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 Hand-Eye Calibration for Stationary
Camera 1 2 3

6 5 4

7 8 9

CalibratedHome2D

10 11

Cam2D
Hand-Eye calibration for Stationary Camera
• Move calibration plate to multiple translation positions(9 positions
as shown above, could be more)
• Move calibration plate to multiple rotation orientations (2 positions
as shown above, could be more)
• Acquire image and record robot pose every time

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 Hand-eye calibration Collected Info
• Actually camera can only see mylar sheet, thus don’t directly know where Robot
Home2D is. Also, robot don’t know each mylar sheet corner points’ robot coordinates.
• However, Cognex Hand-eye calibration can automatically calculate Home2D rotation
center as well as its x, and y direction based on those images and their robot poses.

1 2 3 Runtime Pos

(-2,-2,0) (0,-2,0) (2,-2,0)

6 5 4

(-2,0,0) (0,0,0) (2,0,0)

CalibratedHome2D 7 8 9
(-2,2,0) (0,2,0) (2,2,0)

10 11 (0,0,-1) (0,0,1)

Cam2D Corresponding robot poses

Images acquired +
(x,y,theta)

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 Hand-Eye Benefits
• No need to change end tools on robot, also remove
the error brought by tool change
• Automatic calculation, no need to manually input
robots’ coordinates, avoid manual mistake.
• No need skillful engineer to do it, operator can run it.
• Can correct lens distortion
• Use thousands of points instead of 9 for calculation
(every corner points on mylar sheet are used) ,thus
much more accurate
• Can analyze robot linear status and compensate
robots linear error

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 Auto Calibration vs Hand-eye Calibration
The two type of calibration is the same, only difference is communication with
robot, especially on who generate next Position
▪ In Hand-eye Calibration, robot needs to Move done
• Generate next • Acquire one
generate all poses and tell vision the current Pos (x,y,t)
Current Pos
Image
• Save current
pose. • Move (x,y,t)
Acquire done Pos

Robot
control

▪ Auto Calibration is that vision will generate

Acquire done
all positions and tell robot to move to certain Move to(x,y,t)
• Acquire one
Image
pose, after move is done, vision take a • Move to (x,y,t)
Move done
• Save current Pos
• Generate next
picture, and then tell robot the next target Current Pos Pos (x,y,t)
position…until all poses are moved.
Vision
control

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 Thank you

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