Six degrees of freedom
Six degrees of freedom (6DoF) refers to the freedom of movement of a rigid body in three-dimensional space. Specifically, the body is free to change position as forward/backward (surge), up/down (heave), left/right (sway) translation in three perpendicular axes, combined with changes in orientation through rotation about three perpendicular axes, often termed pitch, yaw, and roll.
Robotics
Serial and parallel manipulator systems are generally designed to position an end-effector with six degrees of freedom, consisting of three in translation and three in orientation. This provides a direct relationship between actuator positions and the configuration of the manipulator defined by its forward and inverse kinematics.
Robot arms are described by their degrees of freedom. This number typically refers to the number of single-axis rotational joints in the arm, where higher number indicates an increased flexibility in positioning a tool. This is a practical metric, in contrast to the abstract definition of degrees of freedom which measures the aggregate positioning capability of a system.
