The latest achievements and development of Parallel Kinematic Machine (PKM ) in error analysis modeling and calibration in Germany were overviewed, including the statistical approach , redundant measurement method, minimal linear combination method, neural network error identification method, the fixed point method and the total self-calibration approach and some new measurement devices or elements. Up till now, there were about 40 PKM models or prototypes in the world which had found practical use successfully in the Europe countries in die making, aerospace, automobile and modeling industry. There were always some errors between ideal parameters and practical ones because of the manufacturing and assembling errors. Manufacturing precision was an important index of the PKM performance, which was the basis to obtain effective workspace and better position precision as well as dynamic performance. Therefore, error-reducing and calibration are the key technical measures, which is necessary for successful applications of PKMs.
