Compared with the traditional non-cutting measurement,machining tests can more accurately reflect the kinematic errors of five-axis machine tools in the actual machining process for the users.However,measurement and calculation of the machining tests in the literature are quite difficult and time-consuming.A new method of the machining tests for the trunnion axis of five-axis machine tool is proposed.Firstly,a simple mathematical model of the cradle-type five-axis machine tool was established by optimizing the coordinate system settings based on robot kinematics.Then,the machining tests based on error-sensitive directions were proposed to identify the kinematic errors of the trunnion axis of cradle-type five-axis machine tool.By adopting the error-sensitive vectors in the matrix calculation,the functional relationship equations between the machining errors of the test piece in the error-sensitive directions and the kinematic errors of C-axis and A-axis of five-axis machine tool rotary table was established based on the model of the kinematic errors.According to our previous work,the kinematic errors of C-axis can be treated as the known quantities,and the kinematic errors of A-axis can be obtained from the equations.This method was tested in Mikron UCP600 vertical machining center.The machining errors in the error-sensitive directions can be obtained by CMM inspection from the finished test piece to identify the kinematic errors of five-axis machine tool trunnion axis.Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method can reduce the complexity,cost,and the time consumed substantially,and has a wider applicability.This paper proposes a new method of the machining tests for the trunnion axis of five-axis machine tool. Compared with the traditional non-cutting measurement, machining tests can the more accurate accurately the kinematic errors of five-axis machine tools in the actual machining process for the users. Host. Measurement and calculation of the machining tests in the literature are quite difficult and time -consuming.A new method of the machining tests for the trunnion axis of five-axis machine tool is proposed. Firstly, a simple mathematical model of the cradle-type five-axis machine tool was established by optimizing the coordinate system settings based on on robot kinematics.Then, the machining tests based on error-sensitive directions were proposed to identify the kinematic errors of the trunnion axis of cradle-type five-axis machine tool.By adopting the error-sensitive vectors in the matrix calculation, the functional relationship equations between the machining errors of the test piece in the error-sensitive directions and the kinematic errors of C-axis and A-axis of five-axis machine tool rotary table was established based on the model of the kinematic errors. According to our previous work, the kinematic errors of C-axis can be treated as the known quantities, and the kinematic errors of A-axis can be obtained from the equations. This method was tested in Mikron UCP600 vertical machining center. The machining errors in the error-sensitive directions can be obtained by CMM inspection from the finished test piece to identify the kinematic errors of five-axis machine tool trunnion axis. Experimental results for that the proposed method can reduce the complexity, cost, and the time voices substantially, and has a wider applicability. this paper proposes a new method of the machining tests for the trunnion axis of five-axis machine tool.