ROBOTICS

Kinematics of Mechanism (ME2012D)

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
CALICUT

Instructor
Dr. Nehem Tudu
Assistant Professor Grade II
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Calicut
Introduction to robotics
• Fundamentals
• Types of industrial robots
• Classification based on mechanical
configuration
• Kinematic modeling using geometrical method

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Fundamentals
Robotics, the fascinating world of creating
devices that mimic living creatures and are
capable of performing tasks and behaving as if
they are almost alive and able to understand the
world around them, has been on humans' minds
since the time we could build things

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Robot
• IFR – ISO 8373
• Definition: A programmed actuated mechanism
with a degree of autonomy to perform locomotion,
manipulation or positioning
• Mobile Robot
Automated Guided Vehicle or Driverless Vehicle
• Defined by Robotics Industry Association (RIA)
as a re-programmable, multifunctional manipulator
designed to move material, parts, tools or
specialized devices through variable programmed
motion for a variety of tasks

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Contd…
Robots are very powerful elements of today's industry.
They are capable of performing many different tasks and
operations, are accurate, and do not require common
safety and comfort elements humans need, including in
hazardous environments such as underwater, disaster
areas, and space.
Most of the hundreds of companies that made robots in
the mid‐1980s are gone; and, with few exceptions, only
companies that make real industrial robots have
remained in the market (such as OMRON Adept, Stäubli,
ABB, FANUC, KUKA, Epson, Motoman, DENSO, Fuji,
Yaskawa, Kawasaki, and Universal Robots, as well as
specialty robotic companies such as MAKO Surgical
Corp., and Intuitive).
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What Is a Robot?

Manipulator Robot
Crane

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Robot Classification
According to the Robotics Institute of America
• Variable-Sequence Robot: A device that performs
the successive stages of a task according to a
predetermined method easy to modify
• Playback Robot: A human operator performs the
task manually by leading the Robot
• Numerical Control Robot: The operator supplies
the movement program rather than teaching it the
task manually.
• Intelligent Robot: A robot with the means to
understand its environment and the ability to
successfully complete a task despite changes to
the environment.
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Robot Accessories
A Robot is a system, consists of the following
elements, which are integrated to form a whole:
• Manipulator / Rover: This is the main body of
the Robot and consists of links, joints and
structural elements of the Robot.
• End Effector: This is the part that generally
handles objects, makes connection to other
machines, or performs the required tasks. It
can vary in size and complexity from a end
effector on the space shuttle to a small gripper
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Contd..
• Acutators: Actuators are the muscles of the
manipulators. Common types of actuators are
servomotors, stepper motors, pneumatic
cylinders etc.
• Sensors: Sensors are used to collect
information about the internal state of the robot
or to communicate with the outside
environment. Robots are often equipped with
external sensory devices such as a vision
system, touch and tactile sensors etc. which
help to communicate with the environment
• Controller: The controller receives data from
the computer, controls the motions of the
actuator and coordinates these motions with
the sensory feedback information.
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Types of industrial robots

• Cartesian Robot
• Articulated Robot
• Cylindrical Robot
• Delta Robot
• Polar Robot
• SCARA Robot
• COBOT

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 Cartesian Robots (LOO)
Cartesian robots, also known as gantry robots, are the
type of industrial robots that perform linear movements
in space. They move along the x, y, and z axes, which
are all orthogonal/perpendicular to each other. Cartesian
robots form a cuboidal working area/envelope.

Advantages Disadvantages
• Simple design and • Take up more space
operation • Limited speed and
• High accuracy acceleration
• Affordable • Lack of flexibility
https://youtu.be/qaLPjcqaL0g
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 Articulated Robots (TRR)
Articulated robots are industrial robots with rotary joints.
The joints are typically powered by servo motors and
are called the robot's axes. The movements of simple
articulated robots resemble that of a human arm. In
complex setups, the number of such joints can go up to
and even exceed 10. Articulated robots are also called
jointed arm robots.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Greater flexibility • Complex
• High speed • Expensive
https://youtu.be/wNY01XEi_nI
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 Cylindrical Robots (TLO)
Cylindrical robots are industrial robots having a rotary
joint at the base connected to a shaft with an arm having
a prismatic joint. The robot has three axes of movement,
two of which are linear and one being circular. The shaft
connected to the base of the bot can rotate, and the arm
can move up and down and even extend to form a
cylindrical working envelope.

Advantages Disadvantages
• High-load carrying • Take up more space
capacity
https://youtu.be/Hj7PxjeH5y0
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 Polar Robot (TRL)
Polar robots, or spherical robots, are industrial robots
with two rotational and one linear joint. The rotary
movement and the vertical lift of the robot are possible
through the rotational joints. Linear joint facilitates the
extension of the robotic arm that lets it extend its
working space around it, resulting in a spherical working
envelope.
Disadvantages
Advantages
• Large footprint
• Good load-lifting
capability • Complex design
https://youtu.be/veiz1xvkzx4
• High costs
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 Delta Robot
Delta robots are industrial robots made on a rigid triangular
frame. The frame is mounted right above the working area,
with each arm hosting a high-torque servo motor. The shaft
of the motor is connected to an arm called the “bicep, “ which
extends in the perpendicular direction of the motor’s axis of
rotation. The other end of the bicep is connected to rods
arranged in a parallelogram shape. Depending on the
application, the parallelogram-shaped rods can be connected
to various EOAT manipulators.
Advantages Disadvantages
• High-speed and • Can’t carry heavy
acceleration loads
https://youtu.be/8j5hPlHTZI8
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 SCARA Robot (VRO)
SCARA is an acronym for Selective Compliance
Assembly Robot Arm/Selective Compliance Articulated
Robot Arm. As the name suggests, SCARAs are
specially articulated robots that come with rotational
joins. They are mechanically compliant in the x-and-y-
axis and rigid in the z-axis.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Position repeatability • Suitable for
• Easy to mount and light/moderately heavy
small footprint loads
• High speed for
moderate loads
https://youtu.be/e9geaPrEW3E
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 COBOT
Collaborative robots or cobots are industrial robots that
share their workspace with humans. These robots team
up with humans and work on the tasks they are
designed for. Since cobots are expected to be around
humans, they are designed to be safe.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Safe for humans • Limited speed
• User-friendly • Expensive and large
• Adaptive and flexible • Require various
approvals
https://youtu.be/aRx20DTTQ2M
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 Robot Degrees of Freedom
• Three coordinates are necessary and adequate to completely
define the location of the point
• To locate a rigid body in space, we first need to specify the
location of a selected point on it, and therefore we require
three pieces of information.
• Next, we also need to specify the orientation of the object to
fully specify it in space.
• This means that six pieces of information are needed to fully
specify the location and orientation of a rigid body.
• Many industrial robots possess fewer than 6 DOF.
• Robots with 2, 3.5, 4, and 5 DOF are in fact very common
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Robot Joints
• There are mainly four types of joints that are
found in robot manipulators:
• Revolute, rotary or pin joint (R)
• Prismatic or sliding joint (P)
• Spherical or ball joint (S)
• Helical or screw joint (H)

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 Manipulator Joints

• Uses the joint symbols (L, O, R, T, V) to designate

joint types used to construct robot manipulator.

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 Robot Coordinates
• Cartesian/rectangular/gantry
(3P)
• Cylindrical (PRP)
• Spherical (P2R)
• Articulated/anthropomorphic
(3R)
• Selective Compliance
Assembly Robot Arm
(SCARA) (2RP)
• Parallel robots

Parallel

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 Robot Reference Frames
• World reference
frame
• Joint reference
frame
• Tool reference
frame

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Programming Modes
• Physical setup
• Lead‐through or teach mode
• Continuous walk‐through mode
• Software mode

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Robot Characteristics
• Payload
• Reach
• Precision (validity)
• Repeatability (variability)

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Robot Applications
• Machine loading, Pick and place operations,
Welding, Painting, Inspection, Sampling,
Assembly tasks, Manufacturing, Medical
applications, Assisting disabled individuals,
Hazardous environments, Inaccessible
locations, Robots in agriculture, etc

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 Kinematic modeling using
geometrical method

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 Introduction
• A large part of robot kinematics is concerned with the
establishment of various coordinate systems to represent
the positions and orientations of rigid objects, and with
transformations among these coordinate systems
• The geometry of three-dimensional space and of rigid
motions plays a central role in all aspects of robotic
manipulation
• The operations of rotation and translation will be
discussed, and the notion of homogeneous
transformations will be introduced
• Homogeneous transformations combine the operations of
rotation and translation into a single matrix multiplication

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 Introduction
• We begin by examining representations of points and
vectors in a Euclidean space equipped with multiple
coordinate frames
• The concept of a rotation matrix to represent relative
orientations among coordinate frames will be introduced
next
• Then we combine these two concepts to build
homogeneous transformation matrices, which can be
used to simultaneously represent the position and
orientation of one coordinate frame relative to another
• Furthermore, homogeneous transformation matrices can
be used to perform coordinate transformations

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 Representing Positions
• Two fundamental approaches to geometric reasoning:
the synthetic approach and the analytic approach

Two coordinate frames, a point p, and two vectors 𝑣Ԧ1 and 𝑣Ԧ2

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 Rotation in the Plane
❖ Rotation Matrix:
where 𝑥10 and 𝑦10 are the
coordinates in frame o0x0y0 of
unit vectors x1 and y1,
respectively.

Coordinate frame o1x1y1 is oriented at an

angle with respect to o0x0y0.

❖ 𝑅10 is a matrix whose column vectors are the coordinates of the (unit
vectors along the) axes of frame o1x1y1 expressed relative to frame
o0x0y0.
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 Rotation in the Plane
• An alternative approach, and one that scales nicely to the
three dimensional case, is to build the rotation matrix by
projecting the axes of frame o1x1y1 onto the coordinate axes
of frame o0x0y0.
• 𝐀𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡:

• The columns of 𝑅10 specify the direction cosines of the

coordinate axes of o1x1y1 relative to the coordinate axes of
o0x0y0.
• For example, the first column (x1·x0, x1·y0)T of 𝑅10 specifies
the direction of x1 relative to the frame o0x0y0.
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 Rotation in the Plane
• If we desired instead to describe the orientation of frame
o0x0y0 with respect to the frame o1x1y1 (i.e., if we desired to
use the frame o1x1y1 as the reference frame), we would
construct a rotation matrix of the form

• Since the inner product is commutative, (i.e. xi · yj = yj · xi),

we see that

• It can be shown that

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 Rotation in the Plane
• The column vectors of 𝑅10 are of unit length and mutually orthogonal.
Such a matrix is said to be orthogonal.

• It can also be shown that:

• It is customary to refer to the set of all such n×n matrices by the
symbol SO(n), which denotes the Special Orthogonal group of
order n.
• The inverse of the rotation matrix corresponding to a rotation by
angle θ can also be easily computed simply by constructing the
rotation matrix for a rotation by the angle − θ :

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Rotation in the Plane

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Rotation in three dimensions
• The projection technique described above scales nicely to
the three dimensional case.
• In three dimensions, each axis of the frame o1x1y1z1 is
projected onto coordinate frame o0x0y0z0.
• The resulting rotation matrix is given by

• As was the case for rotation matrices in two dimensions,

matrices in this form are orthogonal, with determinant equal
to 1.
• In this case, 3 × 3 rotation matrices belong to the group
SO(3).
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The Basic Rotation Matrices
Example:

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Rotation in three dimensions
• Basic rotation matrix:

• In this case, it is useful to use the more descriptive notation

Rz,θ instead of 𝑅10 to denote the matrix.
• It is easy to verify that the basic rotation matrix Rz,θ has the
notation:

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Rotation in three dimensions
• The basic rotation matrices representing rotations about the
x and y-axis are given as

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The Basic Rotation Matrices
Example:

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The Basic Rotation Matrices
Example:
• Coordinates of x1:

• Coordinates of y1:

• Coordinates of z1:

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Rotational Transformations
• A coordinate frame o1x1y1z1 is attached to the rigid object S.

• Given the coordinates p1 of the

point p (i.e., given the coordinates
of p with respect to the frame
o1x1y1z1), we wish to determine the
coordinates of p relative to a fixed
reference frame o0x0y0z0.

• The coordinates p1 = (u, v, w)T

satisfy the equation

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Rotational Transformations
• In a similar way, we can obtain an
expression for the coordinates p0 by
projecting the point p onto the
coordinate axes of the frame
o0x0y0z0, giving

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Rotational Transformations
• Thus, the rotation matrix 𝑅10 can be used not only to
represent the orientation of coordinate frame o1x1y1z1 with
respect to frame o0x0y0z0, but also to transform the
coordinates of a point from one frame to another.
• If a given point is expressed relative to o1x1y1z1 by
coordinates p1, then 𝑅10 p1 represents the same point
expressed relative to the frame o0x0y0z0.

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Rotational Transformations
• We can also use rotation matrices to represent rigid motions that
correspond to pure rotation.

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Rotational Transformations
• We can also use rotation matrices to represent rigid motions
that correspond to pure rotation.
• After the rotation by π, the block’s coordinate frame, which
is rigidly attached to the block, is also rotated by π.
• If we denote this rotated frame by o1x1y1z1, we obtain

• In the local coordinate frame o1x1y1z1, the point pb has the

coordinate representation 𝑝𝑏1 .

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Rotational Transformations
• To obtain its coordinates with respect to frame o0x0y0z0, we
merely apply the coordinate transformation

• The key thing to notice is that the local coordinates, 𝑝𝑏1 , of

the corner of the block do not change as the block rotates,
since they are defined in terms of the block’s own
coordinate frame.
• Therefore, when the block’s frame is aligned with the
reference frame o0x0y0z0 (i.e., before the rotation is
performed), the coordinates 𝑝𝑏1 = 𝑝𝑎0 since before the
rotation is performed, the point pa is coincident with the
corner of the block.
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Rotational Transformations
• Therefore, we can substitute 𝑝𝑎0 into the previous equation to obtain

• This equation shows us how to use a rotation matrix to represent a

rotational motion.
• In particular, if the point pb is obtained by rotating the point pa as
defined by the rotation matrix R, then the coordinates of pb with
respect to the reference frame are given by

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The Basic Rotation Matrices
Example:
The vector v with coordinates v0 = (0, 1, 1)T
is rotated about y0 by π/2.

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The Basic Rotation Matrices
Example:
The vector v with coordinates v0 = (0, 1,
1)T is rotated about y0 by π/2.

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Similarity Transformations
• A coordinate frame is defined by a set of basis vectors, for
example, unit vectors along the three coordinate axes.
• This means that a rotation matrix, as a coordinate
transformation, can also be viewed as defining a change of
basis from one frame to another.
• The matrix representation of a general linear transformation
is transformed from one frame to another using a so-called
similarity transformation.
• For example, if A is the matrix representation of a given
linear transformation in o0x0y0z0 and B is the representation
of the same linear transformation in o1x1y1z1 then A and B
are related as
• 𝑅10 is the coordinate transformation between frames
o1x1y1z1 and o0x0y0z0.
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Similarity Transformations
• Suppose frames o0x0y0z0 and o1x1y1z1 are related by the rotation

• If A = Rz,θ relative to the frame o0x0y0z0,

then, relative to the frame o1x1y1z1 we have

• B is a rotation about the z0-axis, but

expressed relative to the frame o1x1y1z1.

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Composition of Rotations:
Rotation w.r.to the current frame
• Rotational transformation between the frames o0x0y0z0 and
o1x1y1z1
• Suppose we now add a third coordinate frame o2x2y2z2
related to the frames o0x0y0z0 and o1x1y1z1 by rotational
transformations.
• A given point p can then be represented by coordinates
specified with respect to any of these three frames: p0, p1
and p2.
• The relationship among
these representations of p is

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Composition of Rotations:
Rotation w.r.to the current frame
• Substituting the 2nd equation into 1st results in

• Comparing this equation with the 3rd equation in the

previous slide

• This is the composition law for rotational transformations.

• It states that, in order to transform the coordinates of a point
p from its representation p2 in the frame o2x2y2z2 to its
representation p0 in the frame o0x0y0z0, we may first
transform to its coordinates p1 in the frame o1x1y1z1 using
𝑅21 and then transform p1 to p0 using 𝑅10 .

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Composition of Rotations:
Rotation w.r.to the current frame
• We may also interpret as follows:
• Suppose initially that all three of the coordinate frames
coincide.
• We first rotate the frame o1x1y1z1 relative to o0x0y0z0
according to the transformation 𝑅10 .
• Then, with the frames o1x1y1z1 and o2x2y2z2 coincident,
we rotate o2x2y2z2 relative to o1x1y1z1 according to the
transformation 𝑅21 .
• In each case we call the frame relative to which the
rotation occurs the current frame.

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Composition of Rotations:
Rotation w.r.to the current frame
Example:

Suppose a rotation matrix R represents a rotation of angle ϕ

about the current y-axis followed by a rotation of angle θ about
the current z-axis. Then the matrix R is given by

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Composition of Rotations:
Rotation w.r.to the current frame
Example:

Suppose a rotation matrix R represents a rotation of angle ϕ

about the current y-axis followed by a rotation of angle θ about
the current z-axis. Then the matrix R is given by

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Composition of Rotations:
Rotation w.r.to the current frame
Example: Suppose that the above rotations are performed in
the reverse order, that is, first a rotation about the current z-
axis followed by a rotation about the current y-axis. Then the
resulting rotation matrix is given by

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Composition of Rotations:
Rotation w.r.to the current frame
Example: Suppose that the above rotations are performed in
the reverse order, that is, first a rotation about the current z-
axis followed by a rotation about the current y-axis. Then the
resulting rotation matrix is given by

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 Rigid Motions
• Definition: A rigid motion is an ordered pair (d, R) where d
∊ ℝ3 and R ∊ SO(3). The group of all rigid motions is known
as the Special Euclidean group and is denoted by SE(3).
We see then that SE(3) = ℝ3 × SO(3).
• Let 𝑅10 be the rotation matrix that specifies the orientation of
frame o1x1y1z1 with respect to o0x0y0z0, and d be the vector
from the origin of frame o0x0y0z0 to the origin of frame
o1x1y1z1.
• Suppose the point p is rigidly attached to coordinate frame
o1x1y1z1, with local coordinates p1. We can express the
coordinates of p with respect to frame o0x0y0z0 using

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 Rigid Motions
• Now consider three coordinate frames o0x0y0z0, o1x1y1z1, and
o2x2y2z2.
• Let d1 be the vector from the origin of o0x0y0z0 to the origin of
o1x1y1z1 and d2 be the vector from the origin of o1x1y1z1 to the origin
of o2x2y2z2.
• If the point p is attached to frame o2x2y2z2 with local coordinates p2,
we can compute its coordinates relative to frame o0x0y0z0 using

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 Rigid Motions
• Substituting the expression for p2 from 1st equation into 2nd
equation

• Since the relationship between p0 and p2 is also a rigid

motion

• Comparing the above two equations

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 Homogeneous Transformations
• From the previous analysis

• Comparison of these equations with the matrix identity

where 0 denotes the row vector (0, 0, 0)

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Homogeneous Transformations
• This shows that the rigid motions can be represented by the
set of matrices of the form

• Transformation matrices of this form are called

homogeneous transformation.
• Using the fact that R is orthogonal

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Homogeneous Transformations
• Augment the vectors p0 and p1 by the addition of a
fourth component of 1

• The vectors P0 and P1 are known as the

homogeneous representation of the vectors p0 and
p1, respectively.
• The transformation is equivalent to
the (homogeneous) matrix equation

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Homogeneous Transformations
• A set of basic homogeneous transformations generating
SE(3) is given by

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Homogeneous Transformations
• Consider the diagram shown in Figure. Find the
homogeneous transformations 𝐻10 ,𝐻20 , 𝐻21 representing the
transformations among the three frames shown. Show that
𝐻20 = 𝐻10 𝐻21 .

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Homogeneous Transformations
• Consider the diagram shown in Figure. Find the homogeneous
transformations 𝐻10 ,𝐻20 , 𝐻21 representing the transformations among
the three frames shown. Show that 𝐻20 = 𝐻10 𝐻21 .

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