Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics December 17 - 20, 2006, Kunming, China

A new Geometrical Method for the Inverse Kinematics of the Hyper-Redundant Manipulators
Li Sheng, Wang Yiqing, Chen Qingwei and Hu Weili School ofAutomation Nanjing University of Science and Technology Nanjing, Jiangsu, P.R. China,210094
nonholonomic@ 163. corm
Abstract - Aimed at the inverse kinematics of hyperredundant planar manipulators, a new and simple geometrical method was proposed in this paper. The proposed method can obtain a optimal solution of the inverse manipulators with less computations. Some disadvantages of the existing methods were overcome by the proposed method. The proposed method can be applied to any planar manipulators with n-links serially connected by revolute joints. Finally, through a detail computing procedure for a planar manipulator with five joints, the effectiveness of the proposed method was shown.

procedure and the effectiveness of the proposed method. In Section V, some conclusions and the future research are given.
II. STATE OF THE PROBLEM

In this paper, we mainly studied the inverse kinematics of a planar manipulator, which consists of n links serially connected by n revolute joints, as shown in Fig. 1.

Index Terms - inverse kinematics, hyper-redundant manipulators, geometrical method.

I. INTRODUCTION

JN-1

IN

It is well known that hyper-redundant manipulator is a kind of mechanism that has a relative degree of redundancy which is large or infinite. This hyper-redundancy can increase the manipulator's kinematic dexterity, and improve its maneuvering capabilities and its dynamic performance. One particular subclass of hyper-redundant manipulators is planar manipulators consisting of serial n-links serially connected by active revolute joints. This kind of manipulators has been studied extensively for many years. Many algorithms for hyper-redundant manipulator inverse kinematics were proposed. And these algorithms generally were divided into three kinds[li: the algebraic approach, such as: homotopy methods, linear algebra formulations[2], etc., the iterative approach, such as neural networks[3], genetics algorithm[4], etc., and the geometric one[5]['6. However, these methods have some disadvantages, such as: heavy computational burden, high time-consuming computation, and difficult symbolic expansion, etc., and many algorithms don't consider the current state of the manipulators, when calculating the solutions, so that the practical applications required real-time become unfeasible or the obtained solution isn't optimal. Aimed at the above disadvantages, we proposed a fast and simple geometrical method for the inverse kinematics of planar manipulators with serial n-links. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In Section II, the model of the manipulator and the problem, which is studied mainly, were explained. In Section III, we showed the details of the proposed method. In Section IV, an example for a planar manipulator with five links was given to show the computing

JN-2
Base
Fig. 1 A planar manipulator with n links where 1i denotes the i-th links, j] denotes the i-th joints, 6i denotes the i-th joint's angle. Our goal is to design a novel method to calculate the rotate angle of every joint in order to make the end-effector reach the given expectative position.
III. DETAILS OF THE PROPOSED METHOD

In this section, we introduced our proposed method in detail. As a whole, our proposed method is a three-stage procedure. In the first stage, the current positions of every joint, which connects the links, are calculated through the forward kinematic function. In the second stage, the expectative positions of every joint are calculated through the proposed method. In the third stage, the joint angle of every joint are calculated through the inverse trigonometric function based on the expectative positions of every joint. The detail procedure of our method is shown as follows: Stage 1: Step 1: Calculate the current position of every joint through the following equation: +l cosO (1) xi = (i=1,,N-1

Yi= Yi-+ in-

This work is partially supported by Jiangsu Province Postdoctoral Research Foundation #0502027B

1-4244-0571-8/06/$20.00 C)2006 IEEE

1 356

denotes the i-th joint' s position, and (xO,yO)T=(O,O)T. 1 denotes the i-th link's length. 6i-I denotes the i-th joint's angle. N denotes the number of joints.

where

(xi,yi)T

IPN-1

Stage 2: Step 2: Drawing a circle CN, the center of which is at the expectative position (Xe,Ye)T of the end-effector, and the radius of which is equal to the N-th link's length IN = IN + (_ (2) CN: (X-_ And drawing a straight line LN from the expectative position (Xe,Ye)T of the end-effector to the current position (XN1' YN1)T of the (N-1)-th joint.

(Xe,Ye)

X,)I

Y-e)2

Base
Fig.2 The illustration of Step 2

Calculate the coordinate of the point of intersection between the CN and LN:

LN: X(YN-I Ye )+y(Xe _XN-1 )=XeYN-1 YeXN-1

IPNN- 1
IPN-1 :

(3)

(1-b+ 2-4ac

~2a

Y N 1(-)

e YN

Xe XN-1

-Ye XN-1 _X' (YN-1 Ye)

Xe XN-1

(4)

or

x'NI (2)=

b2-4ac -b-b 2
(5)
e

Y XN N(2)= 1 YeXN-1 Xe XNl1

where a=l+( YN1 -Ye2 Xe N-1

YN-1 -Ye) Xe XNi1

Base

'

Fig.3 The expectative position of the (N-I)th joint When IPN-1 is out of its reachable area

b=-2Xe 2YN -Ye XeYN-1 YeXN- Y

Xe XN-1
XeXN-1
C=X 2 +( XeYN-1 YeXN- _Y )2 _12 e Y x -x Ni1 e And then one of (x' Nl(), YNl(l)), (xN-l(2), y N-l(2))T, which is nearer to the current position of the (N-l)-th joint, is selected as IPN 1:(X N-11 Y N-1)

i=i reachable area of the (N-l)-th joint, then drawing a circle CR, which denotes the reachable area of the (N-l)-th joint, and
then calculating the points of intersection of CR and CN, and then selecting a point A, which is nearer to the current position of the (N-I)-th joint, as the new IPN as shown in Fig. 3. N,

If (X'N-1 )2 +(YN-1 )2 >(/li )2, that is IPN-1 is out of the

N-1

Step 3: Drawing a circle C, (i=N-1,m.,3), the center of which is at IPi, and the radius of which is equal to the i-th link's length, i=N-1,- ,3. C: (X-XP )2 +(Y-YIP =I (6) And drawing a straight line Li, (i=N-1,,3) from IP, to the current position of the (i- 1)-th joint. L: X(Y. l-YIP )+y(xjp Xi-l )=XeY- 1YeX-l (7) Calculate the coordinate of the point of intersection between the Ci and Li:

)2

tx1

IX

i-I(1)2
I

(l-b

-a +

x'pi Yi

-X

yipi

i 1

And let IPN1 denote the expectative position of the (N-i)th joint.

x.1 (2)=
or
| 2) '

-b-Vb2-4ac 2
pi Yi-I
Pi

Yi-i YIPi ) xi -x

(8)

{y(2)=

-yipi 2

r ai-l

Yi-i i-l x .(~

IPi

-yipi )
i-

(9)

where

a=l+( _ilYIi)2,
Xlp -Xi-

1357

2XIP~Y-2 ~ -( -yYlYP -ii 1 b=-2xlp -2~IPi Yi-I -yipi Xi-l

b
X

Xlp -Xiy -Y

Xl -Xi~

joint.

And let

IPI denote

the expectative position of the first

-YP)

C=XI12 +(XIPYN-

YIPXN

Stage 3: Step 5:Calculate the angle of every joint:

And then one of (x'i l(I), y'ii(1))T, (x'i l(2), y'i 1(2))T, which is nearer to the current position of the (i-1)-th joint, is selected as 1Pi:(x'il, yi_) If

(x'i_ )2+(y'i_ )2>(/lj)2 ,

j=l

i-l

that is

1PiI is out of the

Remark: It can be seen that using the proposed method, we can obtain an optimal result for the manipulator. And every joints of the manipulator only need to do the min-effort so as to make the end-effector reach the expectative position.

O.:61 = arccos((xi+ -xi)/i+ ) (i=O,-,N-1) (14) or 60 =arcsin((y,+1-yi )Il1+ ) (i=0,-,N-1) (15)

reachable area of the (i-l)-th joint, then drawing a circle CRl, which denotes the reachable area of the (i-1)-th joint, and then calculating the points of intersection of CR, and C1, and then selecting a point, which is nearer to the current position of the (i- I)-th joint, as the new IP1 l

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method, a planar manipulator with five links is selected as an example, this manipulator has five links connected by five revolute joints serially as shown in Fig. 4.
2 12

joint.

And let 1Pil denote the expectative position of the (i-l)-th

Step 4: Drawing a circle C2, the center of which is at 1P2, and the radius of which is equal to the second link's length, C2: (X-XIP ) 2+(y-yp )2=2 (10) Drawing a circle C0, the center of which is at the origin of X-Y coordinate, and the radius of which is equal to the first link's length, (11) C: x2+y2=l2 Calculate the coordinate of the point of intersection between the C2 and C0:

14
/3

/2

~~~1

Base

'1 /Ji

jo

End-Effector

Fig. 4 The Example Manipulator where j] denotes the i-th joints, 6i denotes the i-th joint's angle. 1i denotes the i-th links. And let:

a2a
I

=-b+

2-4ac
Yi--YIP2
(12)

11=0.3m, 12=0.25m, 13=0.2m, 14=0.15m, 15=O.lm.

XIP Y-'-Y'P2X1_

And the initial state of every joint is known as: 01 =1.326rad, 02 =0.785rad, 03 =-0.087rad, 04=-

XIP2-Xi X1IP2-Xi1

F x
or
I

b2-4ac -b-b

~~2a
2

IP2 Y1- 1

YIP2 X1
-x

xIP2
where a=l+( x'P22 )

1-

Y(Yi rYIP2) x P2 -x 12)'2

YIP2 h-2x11. -2 bC 2XIP2+ 2

1P2

2 /12 2-x2 Y'P2 IP 12/

12_X2 -Y2
YIP2
IrT.

_12

And then one of (x'1(1), y'1(1))T, (x'1(2),y'1(2))T, which is nearer to the current position of the first joint, is selected as
lpi-I:(Xi
yy

0.349rad, 05=-0.785rad. If the expectative position of the end-effector is given to (0.625, 0.125)T, we can calculate the angle of every joint through the proposed method in this paper as follows: Step 1: Calculating every joint's current position: 1 2 3 4 Joint 0 EE x 0 0.073 0.25 0.66 0.449 0.59 0 0.45 0.291 0.468 0.399 0.328 y *EE means the end-effector. Step 2: Calculating the fourth joint's expectative position. Solve the equations: (x-0.625)2 +(y-0. 125)2 =0. 12 Ux(0.399-0.125)+y(0.625-0.59)=0.625x0.399-0.125x0.59 And obtaining: IP4(1): (x'4(1), y'4(1))T=(0.637,0.026)T; IP4(2): (x'4(2), y'4(2))T=(0.612,0.224)T; Because IP4(2) is nearer to (0.59,0.399)T than IP4(1), 1P4(2) is selected as the expectative position 1P4 of the fourth joint.

Step 3: Calculating the second and third joint's expectative position and obtaining:

1358

IP3: (0.524, 0.346)'; lP2:

(0.342,0.427)T;
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we proposed a geometrical method aimed at the inverse kinematics of a hyper-redundant planar manipulator with n-links serially connected by n revolute joints. Through the proposed method, we can obtain an optimal rotate angle of every joint. Compared with the methods in [7],[8], the proposed method can easily obtain an optimal solution through less computation and phases. And the detail compute procedure was demonstrated through a simulation example. And the proposed method can be easily extended to the three-dimensional space and can be easily applied to more manipulators, such as space manipulators.
REFERENCES

Step 4:Calculating the first joint's expectative position: Solve the equations: {(x-0.625) 2 +(y-0. 1 25) 2 =0. 1 2 x2+y2 =0.32 And then (0.163, 0.252)T is selected as the first joint's expectative position. Step 5: Calculating the angle of every joint:

0. 8
0. 6
-----

Initial State Expectative State

0. 4
0. 2
0

I 0

0.2

0.4
x

0.6

0. 8

Fig.4 The Illustration of the Example

From this example, we can see that the result obtained through the proposed method is an optimal solution. And in order to make the end-effector reach the given expectative position, every joint only need to rotate a minimum angle.

[1] C. Krieger, and BJ Hosticka, "Inverse Kinematics Computations with Modified CORDIC Iterations," IEE Proc. Computer Digital Techniques, vol. 143, no. 1, pp. 87-92, Jan. 1996. [2] Dinesh Manocha & John Canny, "Real Time Inverse Kinematics for General 6R Manipulators", Proc. 1992 IEEE Int'l. Conf. Robotics & Automation 383 389. [3] Eimei Oyama, Arvin Agah, Karl MacDorman, Taro Maeda, Susumu Tachi: A modular neural network architecture for inverse kinematics model learning. Neurocomputing 38-40: 797-805 (2001). [4] JK Parker, AR Khoogar and DE Goldberg, "Inverse kinematics of redundant robots using. Genetic Algorithms", Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation,. Vol.1, 271-276, 1989. [5] Lee C.S.G. and M. Ziegler, A Geometric Approach in Solving the Inverse Kinematics of PUMA Robots. IEEE Trans, Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 1984(6):695-70. [6] H.Y. Lee and C.G. Liang. A new vector theory for the analysis of spatial mechanisms. Mechanisms and Machine Theory, 23(3):209--217, 1988. [7] W. J. Chung, Y. Youm and W. K. Chung, "Inverse Kinematics of Planar Redundant Manipulators via Virtual Links with Configuration Index," Journal of Robotic Systems., vol. 11(2), pp. 117-128, 1994. [8] B. L. Lu and K. Ito, "Regularization of inverse kinematics for redundant manipulators using neural network inversions", Proc. of IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks, Perth, pp. 2726-2731, 1995

1359