Inverse Kinematics

This addresses the obvious question: what joint

angles will place my end effector in a desired
pose?
 Inverse kinematics

Closed form (analytical) solution: a sequence or set of equations that can be

solved for the desired joint angles
• Potentially faster than an iterative solution
• A unique solution to all manipulator positions can be determined a priori.
• Can guarantee “safe” joint configurations where the manipulator does
not collide with the body.
Iterative (numerical) solution: numerical iteration toward a desired goal
position (variation on Newton’s method)
• Easier to think about
• Better suited to incremental displacements and control.
 Inverse kinematics

There is no general analytical inverse kinematics solution

• All analytical inverse kinematics solutions are specific to a robot or class
of robots.
• based on geometric intuition about the robot
• I’ll give one example – there are many variations.
 Inverse kinematics

q3
q4
q5

q6
q2

Spherical wrist: the axes of the last three joints

q1 intersect in a point.

Consider this 6-joint robot:

• this example is out of the book…
 Inverse kinematics q3
q4
q5
Problem:
q6
 Reff d eff  q2
• Given: desired transform, Teff 
 0 1 

• Find: q   q1 q2 q3 q4  q n  q1

Note:
• The desired transform (pose) encodes six degrees of freedom (this info can
be represented by six numbers)
• Since we only have six joints at our disposal, there is no manifold of
redundant solutions.
• For this manipulator, the problem can be decomposed into a position
component (the first three joints) and an orientation component (the last
three joints)
• The first three joints tell you what the position of the spherical wrist
 Example: Inverse kinematics q
3
q4
q5

Solution: q6
q2
• First, back out the position of the spherical
wrist:
q1

Since it’s a spherical wrist, the last three joints can be thought of as rotating
about a point.
• A constant transform exists that goes from the last wrist joint out to the end
effector (sometimes this is called the “tool” transform): sw
Teff

• Back out the position of the wrist: 1

Tsw  bTeff swTeff
b
 Example: Inverse kinematics q
3
q4
q5

• Next, solve for the first three joints q6

q2

q1

First, solve for q.1 (look down from Goal position in horizontal plane
above)

q1  a tan 2 x g , y g 
or

q1  a tan 2 x g , y g   
q1
 Example: Inverse kinematics
q3
q4
q5

q6
Next, solve for q.3 (look at the q2
manipulator orthogonal to the
plane of the first two links)
q1

c 2  a 2  b 2  2ab cos( c )

rg   z g  h   l1  l2
2 2 2 2

cos c     D
2l1l2 q3
2 2 2
l2
where rg  x g  y g l1 c
and his the height of the first link
q2
 1 D2
tan  q3  
D
 Example: Inverse kinematics q
3
q4
q5
Next, solve for q.2 (continue to
look at the manipulator q6
q2
orthogonal to the plane of the
first two links)

q1

zg  h
tan   
2 2
xg  y g
l2 s3
tan    
l1  l2 c3 q3
l2
l1
q2     
q2 
 Example: Inverse kinematics

Finally, the last three joints completely specify the

q3
orientation of the end effector. q4
q5
• Note that the last three joints look just like ZYZ
Euler angles q6
q2
• Determination of the joint angles is easy –
just calculate the ZYZ Euler angles
corresponding to the desired orientation. q1
 Remember: ZYZ Euler Angles

 cos   sin  0  cos  0 sin    cos  sin 0

    
Rzyz   ,  ,    sin  cos  0  0 1 0   sin cos 0
 0 0 1    sin  0 cos    0 0 1 
 
 c c c  s s  c c s  s c c s 
 
Rzyz   , ,    s c c  c s  s c s  c c s s 
  s c s s c 


   a tan 2 1  r33 , r33 

2

 
  a tan 2 r23 , r13   k
  a tan 2 r32 , r31 
 Inverse kinematics for a humanoid arm

You can do similar types of things for a humanoid

(7-DOF) arm.
• Since this is a redundant arm, there are a
manifold of solutions…

Spherical Spherical
wrist shoulder

elbow
General strategy:
1. Solve for elbow angle
2. Solve for a set of shoulder angles that places the wrist in the right position
(note that you have to choose an elbow orbit angle)
3. Solve for the wrist angles