Application of genetic algorithm to multilateration measurement of the volumetric error in machine tools

The multilateration measurement with laser tracker has become a popular method for measuring the volumetric error of machine tools, owing to its advantages of high efficiency and large measurement range. However, the main problem for the multilateration measurement is that its identification accuracy is unsteady. As the identification accuracy is greatly influenced by the laser tracker positioning, in this article, we aim to optimize the positions of the laser trackers and conduct the optimization based on the genetic algorithm to solve this problem. In order to ensure the feasibility of the optimized measurement system, the position of the laser tracker is constrained by the range of viewing angle of the reflector and the practical measurement environment. Compared to the measurement systems with different laser tracker positioning, the optimized measurement system achieves the best identification accuracy both in the simulation and in the experiment.