Systems, devices, articles, and methods for calibration of rangefinders and robots

A system comprising:

• a frame;
• at least one processor;
• at least one rangefinder communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and, at least, temporarily coupled to the frame;
• at least one manipulator physically coupled to the frame;
• and
• at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage device communicatively coupled to the at least one processor which stores processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
• obtain rangefinder pose information which represents, at least, a first plurality of distances between the at least one rangefinder and a first part of the at least one manipulator in a plurality of poses, wherein a respective distance in the first plurality of distances corresponds to at least one respective pose in the plurality of poses;
• obtain for the at least one manipulator, manipulator pose information;
• optimize a model of mismatch between rangefinder pose information and the manipulator pose information, wherein the model of mismatch includes an affine transform, and wherein the model of mismatch calculates a discrepancy between the manipulator pose information and depth information contained in the rangefinder pose information using the affine transform;
• and
• cause the at least one manipulator to move to the plurality of poses using the optimized model of mismatch.