A modern and unified treatment of the mechanics, planning, and control of robots, suitable for a first course in robotics.

Guide to kinematic theory for the analysis of spatial mechanisms and manipulators Kinematics of General Spatial Mechanical Systems is an effective and proficient guide to the kinematic description and analysis of the spatial mechanical systems such as serial manipulators, parallel manipulators and spatial mechanisms. The author highlights the analytical and semi-analytical methods for solving the relevant equations and considers four main elements: The mathematics of spatial kinematics with the necessary theorems, formulas and methods; The kinematic description of the links and joints including the rolling contact joints; Writing the kinematic chain and loop equations for the systems to be analyzed; and Solving these equations for the unspecified variables both in the forward and inverse senses together with the multiplicity and singularity analyses. Comprehensive in scope, the book covers topics ranging from rather elementary subjects such as spatial mechanisms with single degree of freedom to more advanced topics such as serial manipulators including redundant and deficient ones, parallel manipulators, and non-holonomic spatial cam mechanisms that involve rolling without slipping motions. The author presents an effective and accessible symbolic manipulation method making it possible to obtain neat and transparent expressions that describe the systems showing all the kinematic details. Such expressions readily lead to analytical or semi-analytical solutions. They also facilitate the identification and analysis of the multiplicities and singularities. This all-time beneficial book: Provides an easy-to-use systematic formulation method that is applicable to all sorts of spatial machanisms and manipulators Introduces a symbolic manipulation method, which is effective and straightforward to use, so that kinematic relationships can be simplified by using all the special geometric features of the system Offers an accessible format that uses a systematic and easy-to-conceive notation which has proven successful Presents content written by an author who is a renowned expert in the field Includes an accompanying website Written for academicians, students, engineers, computer scientists and any other people working in the area of spatial mechanisms and manipulators, Kinematics of General Spatial Mechanical Systems provides a clear notation, formulation, and a logical approach to the topic and offers a fresh presentation of challenging material.

Written by two of Europe's leading robotics experts, this book provides the tools for a unified approach to the modelling of robotic manipulators, whatever their mechanical structure. No other publication covers the three fundamental issues of robotics: modelling, identification and control. It covers the development of various mathematical models required for the control and simulation of robots.·World class authority·Unique range of coverage not available in any other book·Provides a complete course on robotic control at an undergraduate and graduate level

Advanced Theory of Constraint and Motion Analysis for Robot Mechanisms provides a complete analytical approach to the invention of new robot mechanisms and the analysis of existing designs based on a unified mathematical description of the kinematic and geometric constraints of mechanisms. Beginning with a high level introduction to mechanisms and components, the book moves on to present a new analytical theory of terminal constraints for use in the development of new spatial mechanisms and structures. It clearly describes the application of screw theory to kinematic problems and provides tools that students, engineers and researchers can use for investigation of critical factors such as workspace, dexterity and singularity.

This book is an introduction to the mathematical theory of design for articulated mechanical systems known as linkages. The focus is on sizing mechanical constraints that guide the movement of a work piece, or end-effector, of the system. The function of the device is prescribed as a set of positions to be reachable by the end-effector; and the mechanical constraints are formed by joints that limit relative movement. The goal is to find all the devices that can achieve a specific task. Formulated in this way the design problem is purely geometric in character. Robot manipulators, walking machines, and mechanical hands are examples of articulated mechanical systems that rely on simple mechanical constraints to provide a complex workspace for the end- effector. The principles presented in this book form the foundation for a design theory for these devices. The emphasis, however, is on articulated systems with fewer degrees of freedom than that of the typical robotic system, and therefore, less complexity. This book will be useful to mathematics, engineering and computer science departments teaching courses on mathematical modeling of robotics and other articulated mechanical systems. This new edition includes research results of the past decade on the synthesis of multi loop planar and spherical linkages, and the use of homotopy methods and Clifford algebras in the synthesis of spatial serial chains. One new chapter on the synthesis of spatial serial chains introduces numerical homotopy and the linear product decomposition of polynomial systems. The second new chapter introduces the Clifford algebra formulation of the kinematics equations of serial chain robots. Examples are use throughout to demonstrate the theory.

Traditionally, mechanisms are created by designer's intuition, ingenuity, and experience. However, such an ad hoc approach cannot ensure the identification of all possible design alternatives, nor does it necessarily lead to optimum design. Mechanism Design: Enumeration of Kinematic Structures According to Function introduces a methodology for systematic creation and classification of mechanisms. With a partly analytical and partly algorithmic approach, the author uses graph theory, combinatorial analysis, and computer algorithms to create kinematic structures of the same nature in a systematic and unbiased manner. He sketches mechanism structures, evaluating them with respect to the remaining functional requirements, and provides numerous atlases of mechanisms that can be used as a source of ideas for mechanism and machine design. He bases the book on the idea that some of the functional requirements of a desired mechanism can be transformed into structural characteristics that can be used for the enumeration of mechanisms. The most difficult problem most mechanical designers face at the conceptual design phase is the creation of design alternatives. Mechanism Design: Enumeration of Kinematic Structures According to Function presents you with a methodology that is not available in any other resource.

The chapters of this book summarize the lectures delivered du ring the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on Computational Methods in Mechanisms, that took place in the Sts. Constantin and Elena Resort, near Varna, on the Bulgarian Coast of the Black Sea, June 16-28, 1997. The purpose of the ASI was to bring together leading researchers in the area of mechanical systems at large, with special emphasis in the computational issues around their analysis, synthesis, and optimization, during two weeks of lectures and discussion. A total of 89 participants from 23 count ries played an active role during the lectures and sessions of contributed papers. Many of the latter are being currently reviewed for publication in specialized journals. The subject of the book is mechanical systems, Le. , systems composed of rigid and flexible bodies, coupled by mechanical means so as to constrain their various bodies in a goal-oriented manner, usually driven under computer con trol. Applications of the discipline are thus of the most varied nature, ranging from transportation systems to biomedical devices. U nder normal operation conditions, the constitutive bodies of a mechanical system can be consid ered to be rigid, the rigidity property then easing dramatically the analysis of the kinematics and dynamics of the system at hand. Examples of these systems are the suspension of a terrestrial vehicle negotiating a curve at speeds within the allowed or recommended limits and the links of multiaxis industrial robots performing conventional pick-and-place operations.