Concept
Kinematics
You might say: geometry of motion
Kinematics describes motion geometry without forces. It maps joint coordinates to tool pose and can solve the reverse mapping.
- What it does
- It gives planning and control a common language for joint and task space.
- Ask
- Given joint values, where is the tool, and which joint values produce the wanted pose?
Parts
- Coordinate frames and transforms: A coordinate frame is an origin and three axes attached to a link, sensor or object.
- Forward kinematics: Forward kinematics computes the tool pose from the joint coordinates by composing one transform per joint.
- Inverse kinematics: Inverse kinematics finds joint coordinates that produce a desired tool pose.
- Jacobian and singularities: The Jacobian maps joint velocities to tool twist and maps tool wrench to joint torque through its transpose.
Sources
- Kevin M. Lynch and Frank C. Park, Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control, Chs. 3–6
This consistent perspective is carried through foundational robotics topics including forward, inverse, and differential kinematics of open chains.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Kinematics" (kinematics) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/robotics/ against my project
Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.
An AI agent wrote this map with the teardown skill. It can contain errors: check the sources before you rely on a part. About and legal