An inverse kinematics module for robotic manipulators

Abstract

This Master’s Thesis project presents the creation of a C++ package principally designed to solve the inverse kinematics of all robotic manipulators with more than 6 degrees of freedom and all revolute joints by geometrical and numeric approaches. It serves as an upgrade of the current kinenik package developed at the IOC (Insitute of Industrial and Control Engineering) that only performs the inverse kinematic for the Universal Robots models. The workstarts presenting a theoretical background by introducing the concepts of Screw Theory, a detailed explanation of the Paden-Kahan subproblemsandthemainpointsoftheIK-Geo. The manipulator families, which are a method of classifying the robots depending on the relations existing between the joints of the robot, are also listed. Besides, an analysis of the current cutting-edge packages and techniques are analysed. The report continues with the methodology being used, starting with the structure of the package. Comments on the main classes of and methods available are used, as the package does not only serve the inverse kinematics of robotic manipulators but offers a broader set of tools related to the robotics’ kinematic sector. The capability of solving the inverse kinematics for all robots is based on the application of different algorithms, which are different depending on the manipulator’s family. The work also shows how to identify the family of the manipulator andgives someexamples, andgives analternative resolution using numeric inverse kinematics with the KDL library. Finally, all the features of the package are tested, and the output is evaluated to check if the tests pass or fail. This comparison is also done with simulations and real life robots and the results are studied.