Forward kinematics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All or part of this article may be confusing or unclear. Please help clarify the article. Suggestions may be on the talk page. (February 2007)

An articulated 7 DOF robotic arm would use forward kinematics to determine the location of the gripper.

Forward kinematics is the process of relating a system's pose to the position and orientation of the end effector. It is widely used in robotics, computer games, and animation. (See: Forward kinematic animation)

Forward kinematics can be considered as the inverse of inverse kinematics. Inverse kinematics is the process of determining the parameters of a jointed flexible object (a kinematic chain) in order to achieve a desired pose. Where inverse kinematics is used to determine the behaviors of the joints for a certain pose, forward kinematics is used to determine the pose which results from behaviors of the joints.

[edit] Mathematically

Mathematically stated the problem is simple:

Given θ_0..n what is the cartesian (e.g.: x, y, z) position of the end effector? where n is the number of links in the system, and θ is the angle of the link.

In pseudo-code this would be:

for i=1:n

t = t * local_link_transformation_matrix[i];

end

where t is the final transformation matrix representing the end effector position.

In robotics Denavit and Hartenberg parameters are often used for solving kinematic problems ^[1].

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Inverse kinematics
• Forward kinematic animation
• Robot control