Robot Mechanics and Control

RIME-811
Dr. Hasan Sajid
 Representing Position and Orientation

• Pose: Combination of position and orientation

• a point in space?
• Coordinate frame/ Cartesian coordinate
system?
• A point in space can be defined as
……combination of unit vector ……. to the axes
of coordinate system.
 Representing Position and Orientation

• Convention: Attach coordinate frame to an object. It

enables us to describe the pose (position and
orientation) of an object with respect to
reference/universal coordinate frame. Each frame is
given a name.
• Assumption: object is rigid
Representing Position and Orientation
• How many dimensions are required to
completely describe the pose of an object?
• Position Description: we can locate any point in the
universe with a 3 x 1 position vector.

Reference Projection of vector on x-axis

coordinate frame of frame A
represented by leading Projection of vector on y-axis
superscript of frame A

Projection of vector on x-axis

of frame A
• Orientation Description:

To describe the orientation of a body, we

attach a coordinate system to the body and
then give a description of this coordinate
system relative to the reference system.

If we attach frame {B} to body then description

of {B} relative to (A) now suffices to give
the orientation of the body

unit vectors of frame {B}

unit vectors of frame {B}

written in terms of frame {A}

A rotation matrix that

describes {B} relative to {A}
• Orientation Description:
The description of frame {A} relative to {B}, is
given by the transpose

inverse of a rotation matrix is equal to its

transpose
Representing Position and Orientation
• Thus,
– positions of points are described with vectors and
– orientations of bodies are described with an
attached coordinate system.
• Frame Description: The information needed to
completely specify the whereabouts of the
manipulator hand is a position and an orientation

*The situation of a position and an

orientation pair arises so often in
robotics that we define an entity called a
frame, which is a set of four vectors
giving position and orientation
information.
• Frame Description: A frame is depicted by three
arrows representing unit vectors defining the
principal axes of the frame

A frame can be used as a description of one coordinate system

relative to another
 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame

• In robotics, we are concerned with expressing the same

quantity in terms of various reference coordinate systems

• we now consider the mathematics of mapping in order to

change descriptions from frame to frame.
 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame
Case 1: Mappings involving rotated frames

A rotation matrix describing {B} relative to {A} is denoted as

*The columns of a rotation matrix all have unit magnitude, and,

further, that these unit vectors are orthogonal. Therefore
 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame
Case 1: Mappings involving rotated frames
Orientation Description in 2D

Describe frame
{B} with respect to
frame {A}
Orientation Description in 2D – Orthonormal rotation matrix

We introduce another frame {V} whose axis are

parallel to frame {A} but origin lies on frame {B}. Point
P can be expressed in terms of frame {V} as:

Eq 1

Frame {B} can be described using its

orthogonal axes as:

We can represent point P wrt frame {B} as

Eq 2
Orientation Description in 2D – Orthonormal rotation matrix

Equate equations 1 and 2, to see how points are

transformed when frame is rotated.

Rotation Matrix: transforms a

point P from one frame to the
other. It is denoted by VRB
Orientation Description in 2D – Orthonormal rotation matrix

• Properties of rotation matrix

 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame

Example: Figure shows a frame {B} that is rotated relative to frame {A}
about Z by 30 degrees. Given BP as below, Find AP?
 Rotation Matrix in Toolbox

R=rot2(0.2)

Symbolic Mathematics

syms theta
R=rot2(theta)
 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame
Case 2: Mappings involving translated frames
 Position Description

• Translation?
• It is simply vector addition
Homogeneous Form of a Vector
 Working in 2D – Homogeneous Transformation
Matrix

• Coordinate vectors of point P can be

expressed in homogeneous form (note that
tilde indicates a homogeneous vector) as

AT represents the translation and orientation or relative pose

B
and often referred as rigid-body motion.
 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame
Case 3: Mappings involving general frames
Very often, we know the description of a vector with respect to some
frame {B}, and we would like to know its description with respect to
another frame, {A}. We now consider the general case of mapping.
 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame
Case 3: Mappings involving general frames

The description of
frame {B} relative
to frame {A}
*The 4 x 4 matrix is called a
homogeneous transform. For our
purposes, it can be regarded purely as a
construction used to cast the rotation and
translation of the general transform into a
single matrix form
 Mappings: Changing Descriptions from Frame to Frame
Example: Figure shows a frame {B}, which is rotated relative to frame (A}
about Z by 30 degrees, translated 10 units in XA, and translated 5 units in
YA Find Ap, where
Transformation Arithmetic: Multiplication and Inversion

• An important characteristic of relative poses is

that they can be combined/composed
together

*Pose of {C} relative to {A} can be obtained by

compounding the relative poses from {A} to
{B} and {B} to {C}. Here operator ⊕ to indicate
Composition of relative poses.
 Transformation Arithmetic: Multiplication and Inversion
Compound Transformations: Given CP, we wish to find AP

Combining the two equations

we could define
 Transformation in Toolbox

T1=transl2(1,2)*trot2(30,'deg') *Note that rot2 provides

plotvol([0 5 0 5]);
trplot2(T1, 'frame', '1', 'color', 'b')
T2 = transl2(2, 1)
trplot2(T2, 'frame', '2', 'color', 'r');
orthonormal rotation matrix,
whereas trot2 provides
homogeneous transformation

T3 = T1*T2
trplot2(T3, 'frame', '3', 'color', 'g');

T4 = T2*T1;
trplot2(T4, 'frame', '4', 'color', 'c');

P = [3 ; 2 ];
plot_point(P, 'label', 'P', 'solid', 'ko');
 Transformation Arithmetic: Multiplication and Inversion
Inverting a Transform: Consider a frame {B} that is known with respect
to a frame {A}—that is, we know the value of ABT. Sometimes we will
wish to invert this transform, in order to get a description of {A} relative
to {B}—that is, BAT
 Transformation Arithmetic: Multiplication and Inversion
Example: Figure shows a frame {B} that is rotated relative to frame {A}
about Z by 30 degrees and translated four units in XA and three units in
YA .Thus, we have a description of ABT. Find, BAT
 Transformation Equations
We can express frame {D} as product of different transformations in
different ways

Equating both to get

transform equation

It can be used to find

unknown transforms.
For example if BCT is
unknown then
Transformation Equations

Spatial Relationships
 Transformation Equations
Example: