;Load affects the motion state of the rotary axis of the rotary table,which further affects the magnitude of the angular position error of the rotary table.By analysing the variation of the Fourier order of the rotary table angular position error under the load condition,an error compensation method based on harmonic compensation is proposed.Firstly,the influence of load on the rotary axis of the rotary table is analysed,the mathematical model between the rotary axis error motion and the angular position error is established,and numerical simulation is carried out.Secondly,the magnitude of the rotary axis error motion is affected by the load change,the self-calibration curves under different loads of the rotary table are obtained,and the Fourier order sensitive to the load change is analysed by the Fourier method.Finally,the Fourier order sensitive to load changes is selected to fit the harmonic compensation function to compensate the rotary table angular position error.The maximum angular position error of the rotary table under different load conditions after the error compensation is±0.25″,which is±0.03″ different from the angular position error under no-load conditions after the compensation,which effectively reduces the influence of load on the angular position error of the rotary table.