In situ calibration of six-axis force-torque sensors using accelerometer measurements

Abstract

This paper proposes techniques to calibrate six-axis force-torque sensors that can be performed in situ, i.e., without removing the sensor from the hosting system. We assume that the force-torque sensor is attached to a rigid body equipped with an accelerometer. Then, the proposed calibration technique uses the measurements of the accelerometer, but requires neither the knowledge of the inertial parameters nor the orientation of the rigid body. The proposed method exploits the geometry induced by the model between the raw measurements of the sensor and the corresponding force-torque. The validation of the approach is performed by calibrating two six-axis force-torque sensors of the iCub humanoid robot.