Revolute Joint 1DOF Joints Types Prismatic joint Joint 1DOF

Hawks Joint 2DOF Spherical Joint 3DOF

Active and passive joints
The coordinate of an active joint is controlled by an actuator. A passive
joint does not have any actuator. The coordinate of a passive joint is a
function of the coordinates of active joints and the geometry of the robot
arms. Passive joints are also called inactive or free joints.
A robot is called a serial or open-loop manipulator if its kinematic
structure does not make a loop chain. It is called a parallel or closed-
loop manipulator if its structure makes a loop chain. Using the two
types of joints, there are mathematically 72 different industrial
manipulator configurations, simply because each joint can be P or R,
and the axes of two adjacent joints can be parallel (//), orthogonal (˫),
or perpendicular ( ).
• Two orthogonal joint axes intersect at a right angle, however two
perpendicular joint axes are in right-angle with respect to their
common normal.
• Two perpendicular joint axes become parallel if one axis turns 90
deg about the common normal.
• Two perpendicular joint axes become orthogonal if the length of
their common normal tends to zero.
The SCARA arm (Selective Compliant Articulated
Robot for Assembly) is a popular manipulator, which,
as its name suggests, is made for assembly operations.
•The (elbow, revolute, articulated) or humanlike. It is a suitable
configuration for industrial robots. Almost 25% of industrial robots,
PUMA

˫ //
The spherical configuration is a suitable configuration for small
robots. Almost 15% of industrial robots, Stanford arm for instance,
are made of this configuration.

˫
The cylindrical configuration is a suitable configuration for
medium load capacity robots. Almost 45% of industrial
robots are made of this kind
The Cartesian configuration is a suitable
configuration for heavy load capacity and large
robots. Almost 15% of industrial robots are made of
this configuration.

˫ ˫
The workspace of a manipulator is the total
volume of space the end-effector can reach.
The workspace is constrained by the geometry of
the manipulator as well as the mechanical
constraints on the joints
 Workspace
The workspace of a manipulator is the total
volume of space the end-effector can reach.
The workspace is constrained by the geometry
of the manipulator as well as the mechanical
constraints on the joints
Cylindrical manipulator and its
workspace
Spherical manipulator and its
workspace
SCARA manipulator and its workspace
Anthropomorphic manipulator and its
workspace
 Reference Frame and Coordinate System
In robotics, we assign one or more coordinate frames to each link of
the robot and each object of the robot’s environment. Thus,
communication among the coordinate frames, which is called
transformation of frames, is a fundamental concept in the modelling
and programming of a robot.
The angular motion of a rigid body can be described in one of several
ways, the most popular being:
 A set of rotations about a right-handed globally fixed Cartesian
axis,
 A set of rotations about a right-handed moving Cartesian axis
 Angular rotation about a fixed axis in space.
Reference frames are a particular perspective employed by the analyst
to describe the motion of links. A fixed frame is a reference frame that
is motionless and attached to the ground. The motion of a robot takes
place in a fixed frame called the global reference frame. A moving
frame is a reference frame that moves with a link. Every moving link
has an attached reference frame that sticks to the link and accepts every
motion of the link.
The moving reference frame is called the local reference frame. The
position and orientation of a link with respect to the ground is explained
by the position and orientation of its local reference frame in the global
reference frame. In robotic analysis, we fix a global reference frame to
the ground and attach a local reference frame to every single link.
A coordinate system is slightly different from reference frames. The
coordinate system determines the way we describe the motion in each
reference frame.
A Cartesian system is the most popular coordinate system used in
robotics, but cylindrical, spherical and other systems may be
used as well.
To define and manipulate mathematical quantities that represent
position and orientation, we must define coordinate systems and
develop conventions for representation.
We adopt the philosophy that somewhere there is a universe
coordinate system to which everything we discuss can be
referenced. We will describe all positions and orientations with
respect to the universe coordinate system or with respect to other
Cartesian coordinate systems that are (or could be) defined
relative to the universe system.
In the study of robotics, we are constantly concerned with the
location of objects in three-dimensional space. These
objects are the links of the manipulator, the parts and tools
with which it deals, and other objects in the manipulator's
environment. Objects are described by just two attributes:
position and orientation.
In order to describe the position and orientation of a body in
space, we will always attach a coordinate system, or frame,
rigidly to the object. We then proceed to describe the
position and orientation of this frame with respect to some
reference coordinate system.
Kinematics is the science of motion that treats motion without
regard to the forces which cause it.
Manipulators consist of nearly rigid links, which are connected by
joints that allow relative motion of neighbouring links. These joints
are usually instrumented with position sensors, which allow the
relative position of neighbouring links to be measured.
In the case of rotary or revolute joints, these displacements are called
joint angles. Some manipulators contain sliding (or prismatic) joints,
in which the relative displacement between links is a translation,
sometimes called the joint offset.
The number of degrees of freedom that a manipulator possesses is the
number of independent position variables that would have to be
specified in order to locate all parts of the mechanism.
What is the number of DOF for the four bar linkage mechanism?
Inverse kinematics :means given the position and orientation
of the end-effector of the manipulator, calculate all possible
sets of joint angles that could be used to attain this given
position and orientation. This is a fundamental problem in
the practical use of manipulators.

Which is more difficult Forward kinematics or Inverse kinematics

and why?
Dynamics :In order to accelerate a manipulator from rest, slide at a
constant endeffector velocity, and finally decelerate to a stop, a
complex set of torque functions must be applied by the joint
actuators.
The exact form of the required functions of actuator torque depend on
the spatial and temporal attributes of the path taken by the end-
effector and on the mass properties of the links and payload, friction
in the joints, and so on.
One method of controlling a manipulator to follow a desired path
involves calculating these actuator torque functions by using the
dynamic equations of motion of the manipulator.
 DESCRIPTIONS
• A description is used to specify attributes of various objects
with which a manipulation system deals.
• POSITIONS
• ORIENTATIONS
• FRAMES
 Description of a position
Once a coordinate system is established, we can locate any
point in the universe with a 3 x 1 position vector.
Because we will often define many coordinate systems in
addition to the universe coordinate system, vectors must
be tagged with information identifying which coordinate
system they are defined within.
AP This means that the components
of AP have numerical values that
indicate distances along the axes of
{A}. Each of these distances along
an axis can be thought of as the
result of projecting the vector onto
the corresponding axis.
 Description of an orientation
For example, if vector AP in locates the point directly between the fingertips of a
manipulator's hand, the complete location of the hand is still not specified until its
orientation is also given. Assuming that the manipulator has a sufficient number of
joints, the hand could be oriented arbitrarily while keeping the point between the
fingertips at the same position in space. In order to describe the orientation of a
body, we will attach a coordinate system to the body and then give a description of
this coordinate system relative to the reference system.

Thus, positions of points are described with vectors

and orientations of bodies are described with an
attached coordinate system.
One way to describe the body attached
coordinate system, {B}, is to write the unit vectors
of its three principal axes in terms of the
coordinate system {A}.
We denote the unit vectors giving the principal directions of coordinate
system {B } as Xˆ B , Yˆ B and ZˆB . When written in terms of coordinate
system {A}, they are called A
Xˆ B , AYˆ B and AZˆB .
It will be convenient if we stack these three unit vectors together as the
columns of a 3 x 3 matrix, in the order Xˆ B , Yˆ B and ZˆB .
A A A

We will call this matrix a rotation matrix , and, because this particular
rotation matrix describes {B } relative to {A}, we name it with the
notation R
 r11 r12 r13 
A
BR   Xˆ
A
B
A
Yˆ B Zˆ B
A
  r21 r22 r23 
 r31 r32 r33 
 r11 r12 r13 
A
B 
R  A Xˆ B Yˆ B
A
Zˆ B
A
  r21 r22 r23 
r31 r32 r33 

Note that the components of any vector (i. e. rij ) are simply the projections of that
vector onto the unit directions of its reference frame
 Xˆ B . Xˆ A Yˆ B . Xˆ A Zˆ B . Xˆ A 
A
B R  X
A ˆ
B
A ˆ
Y B
A ˆ
Z B 
 ˆ ˆ
X
 B A .Y Yˆ .Yˆ
B A Zˆ .Yˆ 
B A 
 Xˆ .Zˆ Yˆ .Zˆ Zˆ .Zˆ 
 B A B A B A 

The dot product of two unit vectors yields the cosine of the angle between them, so it
is clear why the components of rotation matrices are often referred to as direction
cosines.  B Xˆ T 
 Xˆ 
A
 
A
BR  A
B Yˆ
A
B Zˆ B
A
  BYˆAT 
 B Zˆ T 
 A Xˆ BT   A
A T A
B R B R 
 A ˆT  A ˆ
 YB  X  B Yˆ B
A A

Zˆ B  I
 A Zˆ T 
 B
This means that the inverse of a rotation matrix is equal to its transpose
 Description of a frame
The information needed to completely specify the whereabouts of
the manipulator hand is a position and an orientation. The point
on the body whose position we describe could be chosen
arbitrarily, however. For convenience, the point whose position
we will describe is chosen as the origin of the body-attached
frame.
Frame is a set of four vectors giving position and orientation
information. The description of a frame can be thought of as a
position vector and a rotation matrix. Note that a frame is a
coordinate system where, in addition to the orientation, we give a
position vector which locates its origin relative to some other
embedding frame
For example, frame {B} is described by BAR and APBORG where APBORG
the vector that locates the origin of the frame {B}
{B}  {BAR , APBORG}
A frame is depicted by three arrows representing unit vectors defining
the principal axes of the frame. An arrow representing a vector is
drawn from one origin to another. This vector represents the position
of the origin at the head of the arrow in terms of the frame at the tail of
the arrow.
The direction of this locating arrow tells us, for example, {C} is
known relative to {A} and not vice versa.
In summary, a frame can be used as a description of one coordinate
system relative to another. A frame encompasses two ideas by
representing both position and orientation and so may be thought of as
a generalization of those two ideas.
Positions could be represented by a frame whose rotation-matrix part is
the identity matrix and whose position-vector part locates the point
being described. Likewise, an orientation could be represented by a
frame whose position-vector part was the zero vector.
 Mappings: changing descriptions from frame to frame
An important problem in the field of robotics is concerned with
expressing the same quantity in terms of various reference
coordinate systems. We consider the mathematics of mapping in
order to change descriptions from frame to frame.
I-Mappings involving translated frames
If we have a position defined by the vector BP
and we wish to express this point in space in
terms of frame {A}, when {A} has the same
orientation as {B}.
In this case, {B} differs from {A} only by a
translation, which is given by APBORG a
vector that locates the origin of {B} relative to
{A}.
Because both vectors are defined relative to
frames of the same orientation, we calculate
the description of point P relative to {A}, AP
by vector addition AP = BP + APBORG
 II-Mappings involving rotated frames
Known :- the definition of a vector with respect to some frame, {B},
Find :- its definition with respect to another frame, (A}, where the origins of the two frames are
coincident.
This solution is possible when a description of the
orientation of {B} is known relative to {A}.
This orientation is given by the rotation matrix whose
columns are the unit vectors of {B} written in {A}.
In order to calculate A P, we note that the components of any
vector are simply the projections of that vector onto the unit
directions of its frame. The projection is calculated as the
vector dot product. Thus, we see that the components of A P
may be calculated as
A
p x  BXˆ A . BP ,
A
p y  BYˆA . BP ,
A
p z  BZˆ A . BP .
To express this equation in terms of a rotation matrix multiplication, we note previous equ. that
the rows of BAR are BXˆ A , BYˆ A and BZˆA . So it can be written by using a rotation matrix, as
A
P  BAR BP
This equation implements a mapping—that is, it changes the description of a vector—from B P
which describes a point in space relative to {B}, into A P , which is a description of the same
point, but expressed relative to {A}.