User:Prof McCarthy/Robot kinematics

Robot kinematics applies geometry to the study of the movement of multi-degree of freedom kinematic chains that form the structure of robotic systems. The emphasis on geometry means that the links of the robot are modeled as rigid bodies and its joints are assumed to provide pure rotation or translation.

Robot kinematics determines the relationship between the dimensions and connective of kinematic chains that form a robotic system and the position, velocity and acceleration of each of the links in the system, in order to plan and control movement and to compute actuator forces and torques. The mass and inertial properties, and stress and deformation of a robot are generally the focus of robot mechanics not kinematics.

One of the most active areas within robot kinematics is the screw theory.

Robot kinematics deals with aspects of redundancy, collision avoidance and singularity avoidance. Robot kinematics are mainly of the following two types: forward kinematics and inverse kinematics. Forward kinematics is also known as direct kinematics. In forward kinematics, the length of each link and the angle of each joint is given and we have to calculate the position of any point in the work volume of the robot. In inverse kinematics, the length of each link and position of the point in work volume is given and we have to calculate the angle of each joint.

Robot kinematics can be divided in serial manipulator kinematics, parallel manipulator kinematics, mobile robot kinematics and humanoid kinematics.

Often robot kinematics are described in reference to a simplified kinematic diagram that applies to a large category of physical robots.