Should we devote the time to make the gantry coordinate system standard? 2
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Change it. It's a safety concern, and the reason is posted in this thread (1) 50%
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It's not a safety concern, but change it anyway (1) 50%
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Don't change it. You're worrying too much. This isn't as non-standard as you think (0) 0%
I'm part of a relatively new robotics group, and I'm the only member trained in robotics (DH, FK, IK, etc.). We're working on a 3 DOF gantry style robot with linear translation in X, Y, and Z. My involvement with this part of the project has been limited, and I recently learned that the gantry's coordinate system doesn't follow the right hand rule. +X is in the standard +X direction, +Y is in the standard +Y direction, but +Z is in the standard -Z direction. In other words, the gantry's coordinate system looks like a right hand with the thumb inverted, or maybe a left hand equivalent.
I know that mathematically it works just fine (it's not a complicated system in that regard), and it would cost us a few hours to change it, but I believe we should invert the gantry Z axis so that it aligns with a standard right-hand-rule defined Cartesian coordinate system. I'm concerned about third parties making code changes and/or remote support for position adjustments. If someone makes a position change remotely assuming its coordinate system follows the right-hand-rule, then it could result in a system crash. I also don't think it reflects well on us as a robotics group to anybody who understands coordinate systems.
Am I being paranoid? I know theory and practice don't always align, so I'm hoping for some feedback from you folks. Thanks in advance!