FAQs

Scope & Accuracy

Does calibration apply to Cartesian movements, joint movements, or everything? Cartesian movements and stack, grid, pallet, relative movements Calibration (and Workspace referencing) does not affect joint movements.

Do the accuracy numbers apply to all Robots, including XL? The numbers are validated for all Robots except XL. Initial XL tests look close to the same values, but with only one test (n=1) this isn't confirmed yet. More XL testing is planned for Q3; error is roughly expected to scale with Robot size.

We teach many joint positions (e.g., a Robot with ~50 taught joint poses). Can we recover those after a crash? Not directly — calibrating joint movements would require inverse kinematics, which the backend doesn't support yet. Workaround: use joint movements where speed matters, and additionally save a Cartesian position where precision is required. Calibration will then correct that Cartesian point.

How much does warming up the Robot actually help? Roughly half a millimeter or less (with a 15–30 min warm-up, closer to ~0.1–0.2 mm effect). Not huge, but recommended before any high-precision calibration: run a representative Flow until drives reach operating temperature.

Setup & Workflow

Does a new Robot come with pre-built calibration Flows? No. You build the Flow yourself. There's no one-size-fits-all Flow because peripheral equipment and free space differ per cell — Solutions must design it to avoid collisions and maximize joint coverage.

Do you have to activate anything for the Robot to take a picture at each position? Yes — add the "Add calibration sample" Node after each movement in the Flow. It captures a sample at the end of each move.

How many positions do you recommend? About 60 different joint poses. Example: 4 joint movements × a 4-point grid × 4 relative rotations = 64 poses. Relative rotations are an easy way to vary all joints without teaching many points.

Does the Robot ship with a factory calibration? No, not currently. The team is evaluating whether a factory calibration makes sense, since shipping, setup crashes, or module dismounting could invalidate it anyway.

Can the system recognize when a module is taken off? Only if it's swapped for a different module (detected via serial number — it will then prompt for a new calibration). Remounting the same module isn't detected, but it still introduces some error, so recalibration is recommended.

What if we swap the controller unit (CU)? Use the export/import options in the calibration panel. This only works if all modules stay the same — a calibration can't be transferred to a different set of modules.

Customer Handover & Repeated Calibration

Does calibration have to be done by RobCo, or can the customer run it? Customers can run it. For recurring recalibration, set it up permanently: mount the camera in a fixed spot, attach the calibration board (e.g., via magnetic connector on a specially designed gripper), and expose a "run calibration" button in the HMI/Dashboard so it's a one-click operation.

Will there be documentation on how to set this up? Yes. At release you'll get full documentation, an example Flow, and a video/Loom on integrating calibration into the HMI. Judgment calls (e.g., whether repeated calibration is needed) stay with Concept/Solutions, but the product team will assist on the first cases.

The old Rob Vision calibration wasn't very transparent — has that improved? The Rob Vision camera calibration itself is unchanged for now (improvements are being worked on). The Robot calibration UI is new: live joint-coverage percentage, per-joint indicators, accuracy metrics, and RMSE feedback. Note the RMSE jumps up and down early on — that's expected and stabilizes as more poses are collected.

Timeline & Availability

When will RobCalib V2 be released? It depends on the V8 software release, expected around July 24 — that's the earliest go-live. There's some safety margin, but the deadline is expected to hold. GTM enablement (sales, concept marketing) follows in ~2 weeks.

What if we need calibration before then? Use V1. All accuracy numbers discussed also apply to V1 — V2 mainly improves UX and the Flow. V1 is just more cumbersome to work with.

What accuracy can we promise customers? After calibration: ~1 mm error on a 300×300 mm grid (combined with Workspace referencing). Calibration alone straightens, scales, and squares movements; Workspace referencing realigns the coordinate system to the cell. For the tightest accuracy, do both. Workspace referencing alone can reach ~2 mm on small grids without re-teaching.