An iterative general inverse kinematics solution with variable damping

摘要

Currently, there is much interest in the field of robotics in researching methods of obtaining inverse kinematics solutions for arbitrary manipulators. Simple closed-form inverse kinematics equations can be obtained for a few joint configurations using geometric methods. However, there exist many manipulators which were not originally designed for kinematic control which do not have simple closed-form inverse kinematics equations. An efficient and stable iterative method is investigated in this thesis which solves the general inverse kinematics problem without detailed analysis of the manipulator's structure. The proposed iterative inverse kinematics algorithm combines a calibration procedure to estimate the manipulator's Denavit-Hartenberg parameters with an iterative method using the Jacobian and damped joint corrections. The kinematics control algorithm parameters are selected with a computer graphics simulation of the manipulator. The proposed inverse kinematics algorithm is tested with a simulation of an industrial manipulator arm which does not have a closed-form solution, RSI Robotic Systems International's Kodiak arm, and exhibits stability in all regions of operation and fast convergence over most regions of operation.