Dynamics of Complex Robotic Mechanical Systems

Abstract

The subject of this chapter is the dynamics of the class of robotic mechanical systems introduced in Chapter 8 under the generic name of complex. Notice that this class comprises serial manipulators not allowing a decoupling of the orientation from the positioning tasks. For purposes of dynamics, this decoupling is irrelevant and hence, was not a condition in the study of the dynamics of serial manipulators in Chapter 6. Thus, serial manipulators need not be further studied here, the focus being on parallel manipulators and rolling robots. The dynamics of walking machines and multifingered hands involves special features that render these systems more elaborate from the dynamics viewpoint, for they exhibit a time-varying topology. What this means is that these systems include kinematic loops that open when a leg takes off or when a finger releases an object and open chains that close when a leg touches ground or when a finger makes contact with an object. The implication here is that the degree of freedom of these systems is time-varying. The derivation of such a mathematical model is discussed in (Pfeiffer et al, 1995).