This paper presents a simple identification method of the actual kinematic parameters for a robot with parallel joints. It is known that Denavit–Hartenberg's coordinate System is not useful for nearly parallel joints. In this paper, the coordinate frames are reassigned to model the kinematic parameter between nearly parallel joints by four parameters. The proposed identification method uses a straight ruler about 1 m long. A robot hand is placed by using a teaching pendant at the prescribed points on the ruler, and the corresponding error function is defined. The identified kinematic parameters, which make the error function zero, are obtained by the iterative least square method based on the singular value decomposition. In the compensation of joint angles, only the position is considered because the usual applications of robot do not require a precise orientation control.
