A New Approach to the Solution of Robot Kinematics Based on Relative Transformation Matrices

Abstract

In analyzing robot manipulator kinematics, we need to describe relative movement of adjacent linkages or joints in order to obtain the pose of end effector (both position and orientation) in reference coordinate frame. Denavit-Hartenberg established a method based on a 4×4 homogenous matrix so called “A” matrix. This method used by most of the authors for kinematics and dynamic analysis of the robot manipulators. Although it has many advantages, however, finding the elements of this matrix and link/joint’s parameters is sometimes complicated and confusing. By considering these difficulties, the authors proposed a new approach called ‘convenient approach’ that is developed based on “Relative Transformations Principle”. It provides a very simple and convenient way for the solution of robot kinematics compared to the conventional D-H representation. In order to clarify this point, the kinematics of the world known Stanford manipulator has been solved through D-H representation as well as convenient approach and the results are compared.