KINEMATICS DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR MANIPULATORS WITH REDUNDANT DEGREES OF FREEDOM

WHILE SEVERAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES EXIST FOR MODELING AND GENERATING DYNAMIC SIMULATIONS OF GENERAL MANIPULATORS, NO SOFTWARE PACKAGE SIMPLY AND AUTOMATICALLY PROVIDES FORWARD AND INVERSE KINEMATICS WHICH CAN BE USED IN BOTH REAL-TIME CONTROLLERS AND GENERAL-PURPOSE SIMULATIONS. WE PROPOSE TO CONSTRUCT SUCH A TOOL. THIS DEVELOPMENT TOOL WILL PROVIDE A SIMPLE, RELIABLE MEANS OF GENERATING THE FORWARD KINEMATICS, JACOBIAN, AND INVERSE KINEMATICS CODE FOR MANIPULATORS WITH ANY NUMBER OF REDUNDANT DEGREES OF FREEDOM. IN PHASE I, ODETICS WILL DEFINE THE ALGORITHMS, THE INPUTS AND OUTPUTS, THE INTERNAL LANGUAGE, AND THE SIMPLIFICATION RULES USED BY THE KINEMATICS DEVELOPMENT TOOL. THE TOOL WILL BE CODED (BUILT?) AND FURTHER DEVELOPED IN PHASE II.