MODULE 4

Forward kinematics: Link coordinates, Denavit-Hartenberg

Representation, Application of DH convention to different serial
kinematic arrangements fitted with spherical wrist.
Inverse kinematics – General properties of solutions, Kinematic
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Decoupling, Inverse kinematic solutions for all basic types of three-link
robotic arms fitted with a spherical wrist.

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Forward Kinematics:
• Determining the coordinates of the end-effector or end-
of- arm of a robot from a given set of joint coordinates.
Inverse Kinematics:
• Determining the joint coordinates of a robot for a given
location of the end-effector or end-of-arm

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Ref: Saeed B. Niku Introduction

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Link Coordinates

• A robotic arm is a chain of bodies (links) connected by joints.

• For reducing complexity in analysis, consider manipulators
constructed with joints of 1-degree of freedom (DOF):
Revolute and prismatic (linear) joints.
• The links are numbered from 0 (immobile base) to n (free
end of the arm).
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Revolute Joints Prismatic Joints

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 Denavit-Hartenberg Representation

• Used to represent and model robots and to derive

equations of
the motions.
• Any robot can be described kinematically by 4 quantities
for
each link:
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2 for the link STUDENTS
2 to describe the link’s connection
• For revolute joints, θi is called the joint variable (the other
3
quantities are fixed).
• For prismatic joints, di is the joint variable (the other 3
quantities are fixed).
Ref: Saeed B. Niku Introduction
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 KTU
Joint
STUDENTS Joint
Joint

General purpose joint-link combination of a robot

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• Assigning numbers to joint: n to first joint, n+1 to second
joint and n+2 to third joint and so on.
There can be joints before and after these joints.
• Assigning numbers to links: Link n will be between joint n
and joint n+1, Link n+1 is between joint n+1 and joint n+2

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For DH representation, every joint will be assigned with a
local frame.
• Each joint will be assigned with a z-axis and x-axis. No
y-axis representation is used since it is obvious that y
will be mutually perpendicular to both z and x
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• Assigning z-axis:
• For revolute joints, z-axis is in the direction of rotation as
followed by the right angle rule of rotation.
(angle of rotation, θ is the joint variable)
• For prismatic joints, z-axis is in the direction of linear
motion.
(distance of movement, d is the joint variable)
In each case, the index number of z-axis of joint n (as well as
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local frame) is n-1.
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Assigning x-axis:

• In general, in a 3D space, joints may not necessarily be

parallel or
intersecting, as a result z-axis of some joints may be skew
lines.

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• Skew lines are two lines that do not intersect and are not
parallel.
• So, there is always a line mutually perpendicular to any two
skew lines and is called Common normal, which is the shortest
distance between them.
• The common normal is represented by ai. Where a is the
length of the common normal.

• an is the common normal between zn-1 and zn, an+1 is the

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• For Skew lines, the x-axis will be along the direction of the
common normal.

• If two z-axes are parallel, there is infinite number of common

normals between them. So we will pick the common normal
that is colinear with the previous joint’s common normal.

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• If two z-axes are intersecting, there is no common normal
between them (or it has zero length). So the x-axis will be
along a line perpendicular to the plane containing the two z-
axes.

• The angle between two successive z-axes is denoted by α

and is known as Joint twist angle.
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• After marking all the parameters and axes, next is to
follow four standard motions to get the next local frame
from the previous frame.
1. Rotate the joint at angle θn+1 about the zn-axis.
This will make xn and xn+1 parallel to each other

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2. Translate along zn - axis a distance dn+1.
This will make xn and xn+1 colinear.

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3. Translate along xn - axis a distance an+1.
This will bring the origins of xn and xn+1. That is the two
origins will be the same.

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4. Rotate the zn-axis at angle αn+1 about the xn+1 -axis.
This will make zn to align with zn+1 axis.
So the frame n and n+1 will be exactly same and we have
transformed from one frame to the next.

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• These four sequence were continued for other joints also. i.

e. starting from the robot’s reference frame, we can
transform to first joint, second joint and so on until the end-
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• These transformation is mathematically represented using
the
transformation matrix nTn+1 or An+1. This is nothing but the
product of the four matrices representing individual
movements.
• For finding the nTn+1 , the individual matrix are post multiplied.

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The four parameters used in the DH representation is
tabulated in the DH parameter table.
Frame
transformatio θ d a α
n No.
0-1
1-2
2-3
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3-4
4-5
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5-6
• If there are n joints for a robot, there will be n different A-
matrices.
• So total transformation of robot from base to end-effector
will be:

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 Eg: For the given robot configuration, assign necessary
frames and derive the forward kinematic equation.

Joint-2

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Joint-1

Base

Ref: Saeed B. Niku (Page For

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• Three joints are there: Joint-1, joint-2 and joint-3, starting
from
base to end-effector.
• z-axis (z0, z , z2) are assigned along the rotation of each
1
joints.

• Since base is the starting frame and no joints are there

before it,
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direction of x0 -axis is arbitrary. For convenience, it is
considered
along the universal x-axis.
• z0 and z are parallel axes, so x1 will be in the direction of
1
link
connecting joint-1 and joint-2
• From fig, it is clear that, z1 and z2 axes will be intersecting at
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Now perform the 4 standard motions on each frame.

• Consider the transformation from base frame to frame 1

1. Rot(z0, θ ): It will make x parallel to x
1 0 1
2. Trans(0,0, d1): Since x and x1 are in the same plane,
0
the translation, d1=0  Trans(0,0,0)
3. Trans(a ,0, 0)
1
4. Rot(x1, α ): since z0 and z1 are parallel, α = 0  Rot(x ,
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0)
1 STUDENTS 1 1

• Next consider the transformation from frame-1 to frame-2

1. Rot(z1, 90+θ ): This addition of 90o is to make sure that
2
even if the θ2 is zero, there is 90o angle between x1 and
x2
2. Trans(0,0, d2): the translation, d2=0  Trans(0,0,0)
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• Now consider the transformation from frame-2 to end-
effector (frame-H )
1. Rot(z2, θ3)
2. Trans(0,0, d3)
3. Trans(a3,0, 0): : the translation, a3=0  Trans(0,0,0)
4. Rot(xH, α3): since z2 and zH are parallel, α3= 0 
Rot(xH, 0)
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Frame
transformatio θ
STUDENTS d a α
n No.
0-1 θ1 0 a1 0
1-2 90+θ2 0 0 90
2-H θ3 d3 0 0

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• Substitute the values from the table in the A-matrix for
each transformation and find the total transformation:

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Total transformation
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Ref: Saeed B. Niku -Page No: 77 onwards for solved examples

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Ref: Saeed B. Niku Introduction to Robotics. Analysis and control (Page No: 72-99)
Inverse Kinematic Solution
• It will provide values for each joints in order to place the
robot
at a desired position and orientation.
• In the forward kinematic equation, there will be number of
coupled angles like sin(θn+ αn+1) or cos(θn+1+ θ n+1) etc.

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• These terms will be very complex to solve and is
impossible to
calculate the individual cosines and sine angle.

• So to solve this For

issue in the
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E.g: Finding the inverse kinematic solution by decoupling

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Frame
transforma θ d a α
tion No.
0-1 θ1 0 a1 0
1-H θ2 0 a2 0
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• The A1 and A2 matrix for the robotic arm is given by;

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• Final transformation matrix 0TH is given by;

0T =
H

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• The result obtained is nothing but the transformation matrix
that is used to describe the orientation and position of a
robotic arm.
• So the 0TH can be equated to the standard transformation
matrix.

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• For finding the individual angles, two methods are there:

Method 1: Equate element by element of both the matrix and

solve for angle:

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 KTU STUDENTS

From equ. 1 and 4 we can

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Method 2: Post multiply both sides of the equation by inverse
of A2 matrix to decouple the angles.

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General Solution for articulated robotic arm

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• The robotic arm has 6-Degree of freedom.
• So it will have six different angles to be calculated.

Final forward kinematic equation is given by:

RT = A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6
H
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