ET 42053 – INDUSTRIAL

AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS

LECTURE 08 – KINEMATICS OF
MANIPULATORS

Eng. (Ms.) Usha Kawmadie

MANIPULATORS

• Manipulator is responsible for completing the tasks that the robot is programmed to perform.

• As with the human body, robotic joints move in different ways, facilitating linear, rotary, and revolutionary motions.

• This allows the robot to perform the desired movements within its work envelope.
MANIPULATORS
COMPARISON OF THE HUMAN AND ROBOT
MANIPULATOR
MANIPULATOR TYPES

 Gantry or Cartesian robot manipulators are mounted overhead and have three prismatic joints that provide linear
sliding motions. They are classified as 3-axis robots and have large rectangular or cubic work envelopes.

 Cylindrical robot manipulators are named for the shape of their work envelope. They include linear joints
connected to a rotary base that facilitates movement along the vertical axis. This setup allows the manipulator to
elongate and retract anywhere within 360 degrees.

 Polar robot manipulators feature a combination of rotary and linear joints mounted to a base using a revolute joint.
This enables circular motions that allow the arm to move within three axes for a spherical work envelope.
MANIPULATOR TYPES

 Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) robot manipulators have rotary joints and move along the X/Y
axis while remaining rigid in the Z axis. The result is a wide, semi-circular work envelope. SCARA robot
manipulators are classified as 4-axis robots.

 Articulated robot manipulators are the most flexible industrial robotic configuration. The arm connects to the base
via a rotary joint, and the links within the arm connect using revolute joints, allowing the arm to roll, pitch, and
yaw. These manipulators are classified as 6-axis robots.
POSITION AND ORIENTATION
REPRESENTATION

• The position and orientation of a rigid body in space are collectively termed the pose.

• Robotic mechanisms are systems of rigid bodies connected by joints.

• Robot kinematics describes the pose, velocity, acceleration, and all higher-order derivatives of the pose of the
bodies that comprise a mechanism.

• Kinematics does not address the forces/torques that induce motion.

• We will focus on pose and velocity.

• The pose of a body will always be expressed relative to some other body, so it can be expressed as the pose of one
coordinate frame relative to another.

• Similarly, rigid-body displacements can be expressed as displacements between two coordinate frames, one of which
may be referred to as moving, while the other may be referred to as fixed.
COORDINATE FRAME

a - The point P is described by a coordinate

vector with respect to an absolute coordinate
frame.

b - The points are described with respect to

the object’s coordinate frame {B} which in
turn is described by a relative pose ξB.

Axes are denoted by thick lines with an open

arrow, vectors by thin lines with a swept
arrow head and a pose by a thick line with a
solid head.
COORDINATE FRAME

In relative pose composition we can check that we have our reference frames correct by ensuring that the subscript and
superscript on each side of the ⊕ operator are matched. We can then cancel out the intermediate subscripts and
superscripts leaving just the end most subscript and superscript which are shown highlighted.
COORDINATE FRAME

The point P can be described by coordinate vectors relative to either frame {A}, {B} or {C}.
The frames are described by relative poses.
COORDINATE FRAME
WORKING IN TWO DIMENSIONS (2D)
ROBOT SINGULARITIES

A singularity is a particular point in a robot’s workspace that causes the robot to lose one or more degrees of freedom
(DoF). When a robot’s tool center point (TCP) moves into or near a singularity, the robot will stop moving or move in
an unexpected manner.

• It makes a jerky movement or stops suddenly.

• Its tool center point (TCP) slows down or stops. At the same time, some of its joints simultaneously accelerate to
their maximum speed.

• It appears to get stuck when moving through empty space.

POSITION VECTOR

A point in a space can be described within a coordinate system with a 3x1 position vector.

The position of the point A( AP) is a vector from the

origin of the co-ordinate system {A}.

The position vector can be represented

homogeneous coordinates as a vector where the
terms of its components along the coordinate is
given by,

A
P=
vector relative to the frame
ORIENTATION

Our focus is not only to represent a point in the space but also to describe the
orientation of a body in space.
Ex: the box can be oriented arbitrarily while keeping the corner in the same
position in space.

In order to describe the orientation of a body we will attach a co-ordinate

system to the body and then give a description of this co-ordinate system
relative to the reference system.

According to the figure, co-ordinate system {B} has been attached to one of
the corners of the box.

A description of {B} relative to {A} now suffices to give the orientation of the
body.
position and orientation of a box
Positions of points are described with vectors and orientations of bodies are
described with an attached co-ordinate system.
ORIENTATION

One way to describe the body – attached system, {B} is to write the unit
vectors of its three principal axes in terms of the co-ordinate system {A}.

This 3 x 3 matrix, described below is called a rotation matrix and because this
particular describes {B} relative to {A} the notation

• The position of a point is represented by a vector.

• The orientation of a body is represented with a matrix.

position and orientation of a box
ORIENTATION

Hence, the frame {B} relative to {A}, the description of frame {A} relative to {B} is given by the transpose of that is,

There are three rotation transform corresponding to rotation about the X, Y, and Z axes by an angle

(a) Rotation about Z axis

(b) Rotation about X axis
(c) Rotation about Y axis

An axis that’s pointing out of the paper is denoted by and an axis that’s pointing into the paper is denoted by
ROTATION ABOUT AXES

Rotation about Z axis Rotation about X axis Rotation about Y axis

MAPPING

Mapping refer to changing the description of a point (or vector) in space from one frame to another frame.
The second frame has three possibilities in relation to the first frame.

a) Second frame is rotated w.r.t. the first; the origin of both the frame is same.

b) Second frame is moved away from the first, the axes of both the frames remain parallel, respectively.

c) Second frame is rotated w.r.t. the first and moved away from it.
i.e. the second frame is translated and its orientation is also changed.
MAPPING INVOLVES TRANSLATED FRAMES

Position defined by the vector B

P (a point P described in
coordinate frame {B}).

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 AP BORG vector which locates the origin of {B} relative to
{A}.

The description of point P relative to co-ordinate system {A}, AP

is determined by simple vector addition:

A
P = BP + AP BORG
MAPPING INVOLVES ROTATED FRAMES

The origin of the two frames {A} and {B} are coincident but they have different orientation.

A point P that is described in coordinate system {B}, BP and we wish to know its definition w.r.t. to frame {A}, AP

A
P = BP
MAPPING INVOLVES GENERAL FRAMES

The description of a vector w.r.t. some frame {B} and we would like to
know its description w.r.t. another frame {A}.

Consider the example where the origin of frame {B} is located with a
distance from frame {A} with a vector called AP BORG

{B} is rotated w.r.t. {A} as described by

First change BP to its description relative to an intermediate frame which

has same orientation as {A}, but whose origin is coincident with the origin
of {B}.

This is done by pre multiplying by

MAPPING INVOLVES GENERAL FRAMES

Then account for the translation between origins by simple vector

additions as:

A
P = BP + AP BORG

The above equation describes the general transformation mapping of a

vector from its description in one frame to a description in a second
frame.
THANK YOU

usha@tech.sab.ac.lk