3

Kinematic Design of Manipulators

Marco Ceccarelli and Erika Ottaviano
LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics, DiMSAT - University of Cassino
Italy

1. Introduction
Robots can be considered as the most advanced automatic systems and robotics, as a
technique and scientific discipline, can be considered as the evolution of automation with
interdisciplinary integration with other technological fields.
A robot can be defined as a system which is able to perform several manipulative tasks with
objects, tools, and even its extremity (end-effector) with the capability of being re-
programmed for several types of operations. There is an integration of mechanical and
control counterparts, but it even includes additional equipment and components, concerned
with sensorial capabilities and artificial intelligence. Therefore, the simultaneous operation
and design integration of all the above-mentioned systems will provide a robotic system, as
illustrated in Fig. 1, (Ceccarelli 2004).
In fact, more than in automatic systems, robots can be characterized as having
simultaneously mechanical and re-programming capabilities. The mechanical capability is
concerned with versatile characteristics in manipulative tasks due to the mechanical
counterparts, and re-programming capabilities concerned with flexible characteristics in
control abilities due to the electric-electronics-informatics counterparts. Therefore, a robot
can be considered as a complex system that is composed of several systems and devices to
give:
• mechanical capabilities (motion and force);
• sensorial capabilities (similar to human beings and/or specific others);
• intellectual capabilities (for control, decision, and memory).
Initially, industrial robots were developed in order to facilitate industrial processes by
substituting human operators in dangerous and repetitive operations, and in unhealthy
environments. Today, additional needs motivate further use of robots, even from pure
technical viewpoints, such as productivity increase and product quality improvements.
Thus, the first robots have been evolved to complex systems with additional capabilities.
Nevertheless, referring to Fig. 1, an industrial robot can be thought of as composed of:
• a mechanical system or manipulator arm (mechanical structure), whose purpose
consists of performing manipulative operation and/or interactions with the
environment;
• sensorial equipment (internal and external sensors) that is inside or outside the
mechanical system, and whose aim is to obtain information on the robot state and
scenario, which is in the robot area;

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50 Robot Manipulators

• a control unit (controller), which provides elaboration of the information from the
sensorial equipment for the regulation of the overall systems and gives the actuation
signals for the robot operation and execution of desired tasks;
• a power unit, which provides the required energy for the system and its suitable
transformation in nature and magnitude as required for the robot components;
• computer facilities, which are required to enlarge the computation capability of the
control unit and even to provide the capability of artificial intelligence.

Figure 1. Components of an industrial robot

Thus, the above-mentioned combination of sub-systems gives the three fundamental
simultaneous attitudes to a robot, i.e. mechanical action, data elaboration, and re-
programmability.
Consequently, the fundamental capability of robotic systems can be recognized in:
• mechanical versatility;
• re-programmability.
Mechanical versatility of a robot can be understood as the capability to perform a variety of
tasks because of the kinematic and mechanical design of its manipulator arm.
Re-programmability of a robot can be understood as the flexibility to perform a variety of
task operations because of the capability of its controller and computer facilities.
These basic performances give a relevant flexibility for the execution of several different
tasks in a similar or better way than human arms. In fact, nowadays robots are well-
established equipment in industrial automation since they substitute human operators in
operations and situations.
The mechanical capability of a robot is due to the mechanical sub-system that generally is
identified and denominated as the ‘manipulator’, since its aim is the manipulative task.
The term manipulation refers to several operations, which include:
• grasping and releasing of objects;
• interaction with the environment and/or with objects not related with the robot;
• movement and transportation of objects and/or robot extremity.
Consequently, the mechanical sub-system gives mechanical versatility to a robot through
kinematic and dynamic capability during its operation. Manipulators can be classified

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 51

according to the kinematic chain of their architectures as:

• serial manipulators, when they can be modeled as open kinematic chains in which the
links are jointed successively by binary joints;
• parallel manipulators, when they can be modeled as closed kinematic chains in which
the links are jointed to each other so that polygonal loops can be determined.
In addition, the kinematic chains of manipulators can be planar or spatial depending on
which space they operate. Most industrial robotic manipulators are of the serial type,
although recently parallel manipulators have aroused great interest and are even applied in
industrial applications.
In general, in order to perform similar manipulative tasks as human operators, a
manipulator is composed of the following mechanical sub-systems:
• an arm, which is devoted to performing large movements, mainly as translations;
• a wrist, whose aim is to orientate the extremity;
• an end-effector, which is the manipulator extremity that interacts with the environment.
Several different architectures have been designed for each of the above-mentioned
manipulator sub-systems as a function of required specific capabilities and characteristics of
specific mechanical designs. It is worthy of note that although the mechanical design of a
manipulator is based on common mechanical components, such as all kinds of
transmissions, the peculiarity of a robot design and operation requires advanced design of
those components in terms of materials, dimensions, and designs because of the need for
extreme lightness, compactness, and reliability.
The sensing capability of a robot is obtained by using sensors suitable for knowing the
status of the robot itself and surrounding environment. The sensors for robot status are of
fundamental importance since they allow the regulation of the operation of the manipulator.
Therefore, they are usually installed on the manipulator itself with the aim of monitoring
basic characteristics of manipulations, such as position, velocity, and force. Additionally, an
industrial robot can be equipped with specific and/or advanced sensors, which give
human-like or better sensing capability. Therefore, a great variety of sensors can be used, to
which the reader is suggested to refer to in specific literature.
The control unit is of fundamental importance since it gives capability for autonomous and
intelligent operation to the robot and it performs the following aims:
• regulation of the manipulator motion as a function of current and desired values of
main kinematic and dynamic variables by means of suitable computations and
programming;
• acquisition and elaboration of sensor signals from the manipulator and surrounding
environment;
• capability of computation and memory, which is needed for the above-mentioned
purposes and robot re-programmability.
In particular, an intelligence capability has been added to some robotic systems concerned
mainly with decision capability and memory of past experiences by using the means and
techniques of expert systems and artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, most of the current
industrial robots have no intelligent capability since the control unit properly operates for
the given tasks within industrial environments. Nowadays industrial robots are usually
equipped with minicomputers, since the evolution of low-cost PCs has determined the wide
use of PCs in robotics so that sequencers, which are going to be restricted to PLC units only,
will be used mainly in rigid automation or low-flexible systems.

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52 Robot Manipulators

Generally, the term manipulator refers specifically to the arm design, but it can also include
the wrist when attention is addressed to the overall manipulation characteristics of a robot.
A kinematic study of robots deals with the determination of configuration and motion of
manipulators by looking at the geometry during the motion, but without considering the
actions that generate or limit the manipulator motion. Therefore, a kinematic study makes it
possible to determine and design the motion characteristics of a manipulator but
independently from the mechanical design details and actuator’s capability.
This aim requires the determination of a model that can be deduced by abstraction from the
mechanical design of a manipulator and by stressing the fundamental kinematic parameters.
The mobility of a manipulator is due to the degrees of freedom (d.o.f.s) of the joints in the
kinematic chain of the manipulator, when the links are assumed to be rigid bodies.
A kinematic chain can be of open architecture, when referring to serial connected
manipulators, or closed architecture, when referring to parallel manipulators, as in the
examples shown in Fig. 2.

a) b)
Figure 2. Planar examples of kinematic chains of manipulators: a) serial chain as open type;
b) parallel chain as closed type

a) b)
Figure 3. Schemes for joints in robots: a) revolute joint; b) prismatic joint
Of course, it is also possible to design mixed chains for so-called hybrid manipulators.
Regarding the joints, although there are several designs both from theoretical and practical
viewpoints, usually the joint types in robots are related to prismatic and revolute pairs with
one degree of freedom. They can be modeled as shown in Fig. 3.
However, most of the manipulators are designed by using revolute joints, which have the
advantage of simple design, long durability, and easy operation and maintenance. But the
revolute joints also allow a kinematic chain and then a mechanical design with small size,
since a manipulator does not need a large frame link and additionally its structure can be of
small size in a work-cell.
In addition, it is possible to also obtain operation of other kinematic pairs with revolute
joints only, when they are assembled in a proper way and sequence. For example, three
revolute joints can obtain a spherical joint and depending on the assembling sequence they
may give different practical spherical joints.
In general the multidisciplinarity aspects of structure and operation of robots will require a

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 53

complex design procedure with a mechatronic approach of integration of all constraints and
requirements of the different natures of the robot components. In Fig.4 a general scheme is
reported as referring to a procedure, which is based on step by step design approach for the
different aspects but by considering and integrating them from each other. Nevertheless it is
stressed the fundamentals of the design of the manipulator structure which will affect and
will be affected from the other components of a robot. Indeed, each component will affect
the design and operation of other part of a robot when a design and operation is conceived
with full exploit of the capability of each component. The design of manipulator can be
considered as a starting point of an iterative process in which each aspect will contribute
and will affect the previous and next solution to a mechatronic integrated solution of the
robot system. Similarly important are the characteristics and requirements of the task and
application to which the robot is devoted. Thus an so-called optimal design of a robot will
be achieved only after a reiteration of design process both for the components and the
whole systems, by looking at each component separately and integrated approach. Thus,
even the design of the manipulator can be considered at the same time as starting and final
point of the design process.

Figure 4. A general scheme for a design procedure of robots

Kinematic design of manipulators refers to the determination of the dimensional parameters
of a kinematic chain, i.e. link lengths and link angles. Once the kinematic architecture of a

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54 Robot Manipulators

manipulator is sized by means of a kinematic design, a manipulator can be completely

defined by means of a mechanical design that specifies all the sizes and details for a physical
construction. Indeed, kinematic design is a fundamental step in a design procedure of any
mechanical system and its accuracy will affect strongly the basic properties of a mechanical
systems. In the case of manipulators the kinematic design is of a particular importance since
the manipulator tasks can be performed when the kinematic architecture has been properly
conceived or chosen and specifically synthesized (i.e. kinematic design).
Several approaches have been formulated for the kinematic design of mechanisms and
many of them have been specialized for robotic manipulators. General procedures and
specific algorithms both for general kinematic architectures and specific designs of
manipulators have been proposed in a very rich literature. A limited list of references is
reported with the aim to give to the readers basic sources and suggestions for further
reading on the topic.
In this chapter a survey of current issues is presented by using basic concepts and
formulations in order to emphasize on problem formulation and computational efforts.
Indeed, a great attention is still addressed to kinematic design of manipulators by robot
designers and researchers mainly with the aim to improve computational efficiency,
generality and optimality of the algorithms, even with respect to new and new requirements
for robotic manipulations. In addition, theoretical and numerical works are usually
validated by the same investigators through tests with prototypes and experimental activity
on performance characteristics.
This survey has overviewed the currently available procedures for kinematic design of
manipulators that can be grouped in three main approaches, namely extension of Synthesis
of Mechanisms (for example: Precision Point Techniques, Workspace Design, Inversion
algorithms, Optimization formulation), application of Screw Theory, application of 3D
Kinematics/Geometry (for example: Lie Group Theory, Dual Numbers, Quaternions,
Grassmann Geometry).
A kinematic design procedure is aimed to obtain closed-form formulation and/or numerical
algorithms, which can be used not only for design purposes but even to investigate effects of
design parameters on design characteristics and operation performance of manipulators.
Usually, there is a distinction between open-chain serial manipulators and closed-chain
parallel manipulators. This distinction is also considered as a constraint for the kinematic
design of manipulators and in fact different procedures and formulation have been
proposed to take into account the peculiar differences in their kinematic design.
Nevertheless, recently, attempts have been made to formulate a unique view for kinematic
design both of serial and parallel manipulators, mainly with an approach using
optimization problems.
Future challenges in the field of robot design can be recognized mainly in the aspects for
computational efficiency and in conceiving new manipulator architectures with a fully
insight of design degeneracy both of the kinematic possibilities and proposed numerical
algorithms.

2. The design problem

The manipulator architecture of a robot is composed of an arm mostly for translation
movements, a wrist for orientation movement, and an end-effector for interaction with the
environment and/or external objects, as shown in Fig. 1. Generally, the term manipulator

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 55

refers specifically to the arm design, but it can also include the wrist when attention is
addressed to the overall manipulation characteristics of a robot.
A kinematic study of robots deals with the determination of configuration and motion of
manipulators by looking at the geometry during the motion, but without considering the
actions that generate or limit the manipulator motion. Therefore, a kinematic study makes
possible to determine and design the motion characteristics of a manipulator but
independently from the mechanical design details and actuator capability.
A kinematic chain can be of open architecture, when referring to serial connected
manipulators, or closed architecture, when referring to parallel manipulators, as in the
example in Fig. 5b).
The kinematic model of a manipulator can be obtained in the form of a kinematic chain or
mechanism by using schemes for joints and rigid links through essential dimensional sizes
for connections between two joints. The mobility of a manipulator is due to the degrees of
freedom (d.o.f.s) of the joints in the kinematic chain, when the links are assumed to be rigid
bodies. In order to determine the geometrical sizes and kinematic parameters of open-chain
general manipulators, one can usually refer to a scheme like that in Fig. 5a) by using a H–D
notation, in agreement with a procedure that was proposed by Hartenberg and Denavit in
1955.

a) b)
Figure 5. A kinematic scheme for manipulator link parameters: a) according to H-D
notation; b) for parallel architectures
This scheme gives the minimum number of parameters that are needed to describe the
geometry of a link between two joints, but also indicates the joint variables. The joints in Fig.
5a) are indicated as big black points in order to stress attention to the link geometry and H–
D parameters. In particular, referring to Fig. 5a) for j-link, the j-frame XjYjZj is assumed as
fixed to j-link, with the Zj axis coinciding with the joint axis, with the Xj axis lying on the
common normal between Zj and Zj+1 and pointing to Zj+1.
The kinematic parameters of a manipulator can be defined according to the H–D notation in
Fig. 5a) as:
• aj, link length that is measured as the distance between the Zj and Zj+1 axes along Xj;
• αj, twist angle that is measured as the angle between the Zj and Zj+1 axes about Xj;
• d j+1, link offset that is measured as the distance between the Xj and X j+1 axes along Z j+1;

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56 Robot Manipulators

• θj+1, joint angle that is measured as the angle between the Xj and X j+1 axes about Zj+1
When a joint can be modelled as a rotation pair, the angle θj+1 is the corresponding
kinematic variable. When a joint is a prismatic pair, the distance dj+1 is the corresponding
kinematic variable. Other H–D parameters can be considered as dimensional parameters of
the links.
The H–D notation is very useful for the formulation of the position problems of
manipulators through the so-called transformation matrix by using matrix algebra.
The position problem of manipulators, both with serial and parallel architectures, consists of
determining the position and orientation of the end-effector as a function of the manipulator
configuration that is given by the link position that is defined by the joint variables.
In general, the position problem can be considered from different viewpoints depending on
the unknowns that one can solve in the following formulations:
• Kinematic Direct Problem in which the dimensions of a manipulator are given through
the dimensional H–D parameters of the links but the position and orientation of the
end-effector are determined as a function of the values of the joint variables;
• Kinematic Inverse Problem in which the position and orientation of the end-effector of a
given manipulator are given, and the configuration of the manipulator chain is
determined by computing the values of the joint variables.
A third kinematic problem can be formulated as:
• Kinematic Indirect Problem (properly ‘Kinematic Design Problem’) in which a certain
number of positions and orientations of the end-effector are given but the type of
manipulator chain and its dimensions are the unknowns of the problem.
Although general concepts are common both for serial and parallel manipulators,
peculiarities must be considered for parallel architectures chains.
In parallel manipulators one can consider as generalized coordinates the position
coordinates of the center point P of the moving platform with respect to a fixed frame (Xo Yo
Zo), Fig. 5b), and the direction is described by Euler angles defining the orientation of the
moving platform with respect to a fixed frame. A matrix R defines the orthogonal 3 × 3
rotation matrix defined by the Euler angles, which describes the orientation of the frame
attached to the moving platform with respect to the fixed frame, Fig. 5b). Let Ai and Bi be
the attachment points at the base and moving platform, respectively, and di the leg lengths.
Let ai and bi be the position vectors of points Ai and Bi in the fixed and moving coordinate
frames, respectively. Thus, for parallel manipulators the Inverse Kinematics Problem can be
solved by using
A i B i = p + Rb i − a i (1)

to extract the joint variables from leg lengths. The length of the i-th leg can be obtained by
taking the dot product of vector AiBi with itself, for i:1,…,6 in the form

d i2 = [p + Rb i − a i ]t [p + Rb i − a i ] (2)

The Direct Kinematics Problem describes the mapping from the joint coordinates to the
generalized coordinates. The problem for parallel manipulators is quite difficult since it
involves the solution of a system of nonlinear coupled algebraic equations (1), and has many
solutions that refer to assembly modes. For a general case of Gough-Stewart Platform with

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 57

planar base and platform, the Direct Kinematics Problem may have up to 40 solutions. A 20-
th degree polynomial has been derived leading to 40 mutually symmetric assembly modes.

3. Algorithms for kinematic design of manipulators

Synthesis deals with reverse problems of Analysis. Thus, Synthesis of mechanisms and
manipulators deals with design of the kinematic chain as function of manipulative tasks.
Characteristic manipulative tasks of manipulators concern with manipulation of objects as
movement and orientation of grasped objects or end-effector itself during a suitably
programmed motion of a manipulator. But manipulation includes also other aspects of
functional and operation characteristics, and nowadays mechatronic approaches are also
used to consider those other aspects in fully integrated approaches.
Design calculation of kinematic chain of mechanisms and manipulators is usually attached
through three problems, namely type synthesis, number synthesis, and dimensional
synthesis. Number synthesis concerns with the determination of the number of links and
joints in the chain, which are useful or necessary to obtain a desired mobility and
manipulation capability of a manipulator mechanism. Similarly, type synthesis concerns
with the determination of the structure of the kinematic chain, i.e. the type of joints and
kinematic architecture, that are useful or necessary to obtain a desired mobility and
manipulation capability of a manipulator mechanism. Finally, dimensional synthesis (i.e.
kinematic design) concerns with the calculation of the link sizes and range mobility of joints
that are useful or necessary to obtain a desired mobility and manipulation capability of a
manipulator mechanism.
Type synthesis and number synthesis are related to morphologies of manipulator
architectures and today they are approached with designer’s own experience or through
complex design procedures that most of the time can be understood as data bases in
informatics expert systems.
The traditional design activity on manipulators is still recognized in the problem of the
dimensional design of a manipulator when its kinematic architecture is given. This is the
problem that is surveyed in this paper.
The manipulative tasks that are used as design data and constraints, are related mainly to
kinematic features such as workspace, path planning, Static accuracy; but other aspects can
be also considered within the Mechanics of robots, such as singularities, stiffness behaviour,
dynamic response. One aspect of relevant significance for manipulator design is the
workspace analysis that is often used as design means yet, beside as a criteria for evaluating
the quality of designed solutions. Positioning and orientation capability can be evaluated by
computing position and orientation workspaces that give the reachable regions by the
manipulator extremity or end-effector as function of the mobility range of the manipulator
joints. Position workspace refers to reachable points by a reference point on manipulator
extremity, and orientation workspace describes the angles that can be swept by reference
axes on manipulator extremity. Once the workspace points (both in position and
orientation) are determined, one can use them to perform an evaluation of workspace
characteristics and a feasibility evaluation of kinematic design solutions. In particular, a
cross-section area can be determined by selecting from the computed workspace points
those that lay on a cross-section plane under examination. Thus, the shape can be illustrated
by the result in a plot form. The computation of the value of a cross-section area can be
obtained by using a grid evaluation or an algebraic formula.

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58 Robot Manipulators

By referring to the scheme of Fig. 6a) for a grid evaluation, one can calculate the area
measure A as a sum of the scanning resolution rectangles over the scanned area as

∑ ∑(
I J
A= A Pij Δi Δj) (3)
i=1 j= 1

by using the APij entries of a binary matrix that are related to the cross-section plane for A.

a) b)
Figure 6. General schemes for an evaluation of manipulator workspace: a) through binary
representation; b) through geometric properties for algebraic formulation
Alternatively, one can use the workspace points of the boundary contour of a cross-section
area that can be determined from an algebraic formulation or using the entries of the binary
matrix. Thus, referring to the scheme of Fig. 6b) and by assuming as computed the
coordinates of the cross-section contour points as an ordinate set (rj, zj) of the contour points

∑ (z
Hj with j=1, …, N, the area measure A can be computed as
N
A= 1, j + 1 )(
+ z 1 , j r1 , j − r1 , j + 1 ) (4)
j= 1

By extending the above-mentioned procedures, the workspace volume V can be computed

∑ ∑ ∑ [P
by using the grid scanning procedure in a general form as
I J K
V= ijk Δi Δj Δk ] (5)
i=1 j= 1 k =1

in which Pijk is the entry of a binary representation in a 3D grid.

When the workspace volume is a solid of revolution, by using the boundary contour points
through the Pappus-Guldinus Theorem the workspace volume V can be computed within
the binary mapping procedure, Fig.6, but yet in the form as

∑ ∑ ⎢⎣P
⎡ ⎛ Δi ⎞⎤
Δi Δj ⎜ i Δi + ⎟⎥
I J

⎝ 2 ⎠⎦
V = 2π ij (6)
i=1 j= 1

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 59

or within the algebraic formulation in the form

∑ (z
N
V=
π
2
1, j + 1 )(
+ z 1 , j r12, j − r12, j + 1 ) (7)
j= 1

Therefore, it is evident that the formula of Eq. (6) has a general application, while Eqs. (6)
and (7) are restricted to serial open-chain manipulators with revolute joints. Those
approaches and formulation can be proposed and used for a numerical evaluation of
workspace characteristics of parallel manipulators too.
Similarly, hole and void regions, as unreachable regions, can be numerically evaluated by
using the formulas of Eqs (3) to (7) to obtain the value of their cross-sections and volumes,
once they have been preliminarily determined.
Orientation workspace can be similarly evaluated by considering the angles in a Cartesian
frame representation.
A design problem for manipulators can be formulated as a set of equations, which give the
position and orientation of a manipulator in term of its extremity (such as workspace
formulation) together with additional expressions for required performance in term of
suitable criteria evaluations.

3.1 Synthesis procedures for mechanisms

Since manipulators can be treated as spatial mechanisms, the traditional techniques for
mechanism design can be used once suitable adaptations are formulated to consider the
peculiarity of the open chain architecture.
Two ways can be approached as referring to general model for closure equations:
elaboration of closure equations for the open polygon either by adding a fictitious link with
its joints either by using the coordinates of the manipulator extremity, (Duffy 1980), as
shown in the illustrative example of Fig.7.
In any case, traditional techniques for mechanisms are used by considering the manipulator
extremity/end-effector as a coupler link whose kinematics is the purpose of the formulation.
Thus, Direct and Inverse Kinematics can be formulated and Synthesis problems can be
attached by using Precision Points as those points (i.e. poses in general) at which the pose
and/or other performances are prescribed as to be reached and/or fulfilled exactly.

Figure 7. Closing kinematic chain of a3R manipulator by adding a fictious link and
spherical joint or by looking at coordinates of point Q

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60 Robot Manipulators

This can be expressed in a general form as

Fi = F(X i ) (8)

in which Fi is the performance evaluation at i-th precision pose whose coordinates Xi are
function of the mechanism configuration that can be obtained by solving closure equations
through any traditional methods for mechanism analysis.
Thus, design requirements and design equations can be formulated for the Precision Points,
whose maximum number for a mathematical defined problem can be determined by the
number of variables. But, the pose accuracy and path planning as well as the performance
value away from the Precision Points will determine errors in the behaviour of the
manipulator motion, whose evaluation can be still computed by using the design equations
in proper procedures for optimization purposes.
Precision Points techniques for mechanisms have been developed for path positions, but for
manipulator design the concept has been extended to performance criteria such as
workspace boundary points and singularities. Thus, new specific algorithms have been
developed for manipulator design by using approaches from Mechanism Design but with
specific formulation of the peculiar manipulative tasks. Approaches such as Newton-
Raphson numerical techniques, dyad elimination, Graph Theory modeling, mobility
analysis, Instantaneous kinematic invariants have been developed for manipulator
architectures as extension of those basic properties of planar mechanisms that have been
investigated and used for design purposes since the second half of 19-th century. Of course,
the complexity of 3D architectures have requested development of new more efficient
calculation means, such as a suitable use of Matrix Algebra, 3D Geometry considerations,
and Screw Theory formulation.

3.2 Application of 3D geometry and Screw Theory

Three dimensional Geometry of spatial manipulators has required and requires specific
consideration and investigation on the 3D characteristics of a general motion. Thus, different
mathematizations can be used by taking into account of generality of 3D motion.
Dual numbers and quaternions have been introduced in the last decades to study
Mechanism Design and they are specifically applied to study 3D properties of rigid body
motion in manipulator architectures.
The structure of mathematical properties of rigid body motion has been also addressed for
developing or applying new Algebra theories for analysis and design purposes of spatial
mechanisms and manipulators. Recently Lie Group Theory and Grassman Geometry have
been adapted and successfully applied to develop new calculation means for designing new
solutions and characterizing manipulator design in general frames.
A group G is a non-empty set endowed with a closed product operation in the set satisfying
some definition conditions. A subset H of elements of a group G is called a subgroup of G if
the subset H constitutes a group which has common group operation with the group G.
Furthermore, a group G is called a Lie group if G is an analytic manifold and the mapping
GxG to G is analytic. The set {D} of rigid body motions or displacements is a 6-dimensional
Lie group of transformations, which acts on the points of the 3-dimensional Euclidean affine
space. The Lie subgroups of {D} play a key role in the mobility analysis and synthesis of
mechanisms. Therefore using the mathematics of this algebra is possible to describe general

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 61

features in a synthetic form that allows also fairly easy investigation of new particular
conditions.
For example in Fig.8, (Lee and Hervè 2004), a hybrid spherical-spherical spatial 7R
mechanism is a combination of two trivial spherical chains. Both chains are the spherical
four-revolute chains A-B-C-D and G-F-E-D with the apexes O1 and O2 respectively. The
mechanical bond {L(4,7)} between links 4 and 7 as the intersection set of two subsets {G1}
and {G2} is given by
{G1}={R(O1,uZ1)}{R(O2,uZ2)}{R(O1,uZ3)}{R(O2,uZ4)}{G2}={R(O2,uZ7)}{R(O2,uZ6)}{R(O1,uZ5) (9)
where a mechanical bond is a mechanical connection between rigid bodies and it can be
described by a mathematical bond, i.e. connected subset of the displacement group.
Hence, the relative motion between links 4 and 7 is depicted by
{L(4,7)}= {G1} ∩ {G2} = (10)
= {R(O1,uZ1)}{R(O2,uZ2)}{R(O1,uZ3)}{R(O2,uZ4)} ∩ {R(O2,uZ7)} {R(O2,uZ6)} {R(O1,uZ5)}
In general, {R(O1,uZ1)} {R(O2,uZ2)}{R(O1,uZ3)} {R(O2,uZ4)} {R(O1,uZ5)} {R(O2,uZ6)} is a 6-
dimensional kinematic bond and generates the displacement group {D}. Therefore,
{R(O1,uZ1)} {R(O2,uZ2)} {R(O1,uZ3)} {R(O2,uZ4)} {R(O1,uZ5)} {R(O2,uZ6)} ∩{R(O2,uZ7)} = {D} ∩
{R(O2,uZ7)} = {R(O2,uZ7)}. This yields that the A-G-B-F-C-E-D 7R chain has one dof when all
kinematic pairs move and consequently {L(4,7)} includes a 1-dimensional manifold denoted
by {L(1/D)(4,7)}. If all the pairs move and joint axes do not intersect again, any possible
mobility characterized by this geometric condition stops occurring and we have {L(4,7)} ⊇
{L(1/D)(4,7)}. Summarizing, the kinematic chain works like a general spatial 7R chain whose
general mobility is with three dofs, but with the above.-mentioned condition is constrained
to one dof, since it acts like a spherical four-revolute A-B-C-D chain with one dof, or a
spherical four-revolute G-F-E-D chain with one dof.
Grassman Geometry and further developments have been used to describe the Line
Geometry that can be associated with spatial motion. Plucker coordinates and suitable
algebra of vectors are used in Grassman Geometry to generalize properties of motion of a
line that can be fixed on any link of a manipulator, but mainly on its extremity.

Figure 8. Hybrid spherical-spherical discontinuously movable 7R mechanism, (Lee and

Hervè 2004)

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62 Robot Manipulators

Figure 9. A scheme of screw triangle for 3R manipulator design

Screw Theory was developed to investigate the general motion of rigid bodies in its form of
helicoidal (screw) motion in 3D space. A screw entity was defined to describe the motion
and to perform computation still through vector approaches.
A unit screw is a quantity associated with a line in the three-dimensional space and a scalar
called pitch, which can be represented by a 6 x 1 vector $ = [ s , r x s + λs ]T where s is a unit
vector pointing along the direction of the screw axis, r is the position vector of any point on
the screw axis with respect to a reference frame and λ is the pitch of the screw. A screw of
intensity ρ is represented by S = ρ $. When a screw is used to describe the motion state of a
rigid body, it is often called a twist, represented by a 6 x 1 vector as $ = [ω, v ] T, where ω
represents the instant angular velocity and v represents the linear velocity of a point O
which belongs to the body and is coincident with the origin of the coordinate system.
Screw Theory has been applied to manipulator design by using suitable models of
manipulator chains, both with serial and parallel architectures, in which the joint mobility is
represented by corresponding screws, (Davidson and Hunt 2005).
Thus, screw systems describe the motion capability of manipulator chains and therefore
they can be used still with a Precision Point approach to formulate design equations and
characteristics of the architectures. In Fig.9 an illustrative example is reported as based on
the fundamental so-called Screw Triangle model for efficient computational purposes, even
to deduce closed-form design expressions.

3.3 Optimization problem design

The duality between serial and parallel manipulators is not anymore understood as a
competition between the two kinematic architectures. The intrinsic characteristics of each
architecture make each architecture as devoted to some manipulative tasks more than an
alternative to the counterpart. The complementarities of operation performance of serial and
parallel manipulators make them as a complete solution set for manipulative operations.

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 63

The differences but complementarities in their performance have given the possibility in the
past to treat them separately, mainly for design purposes. In the last two decades several
analysis results and design procedures have been proposed in a very rich literature with the
aim to characterize and design separately the two manipulator architectures.
Manipulators are said useful to substitute/help human beings in manipulative operations
and therefore their basic characteristics are usually referred and compared to human
manipulation performance aspects. A well-trained person is usually characterized for
manipulation purpose mainly in terms of positioning skill, arm mobility, arm power,
movement velocity, and fatigue limits. Similarly, robotic manipulators are designed and
selected for manipulative tasks by looking mainly to workspace volume, payload capacity,
velocity performance, and stiffness. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to consider those
aspects as fundamental criteria for manipulator design. But generally since they can give
contradictory results in design algorithms, a formulation as multi-objective optimization
problem can be convenient in order to consider them simultaneously. Thus, an optimum
design of manipulators can be formulated as

min F(X) = min [f1 ( X ), f2 ( X ), ...., fN ( X ) ]T (11)

subjected to
G (X ) < 0 (12)

H (X) = 0 (13)

where T is the transpose operator; X is the vector of design variables; F(X) is the vector of
objective functions fì that express the optimality criteria, G(X) is the vector of constraint
functions that describes limiting conditions, and H(X) is the vector of constraint functions
that describes design prescriptions.
There is a number of alternative methods to solve numerically a multi-objective
optimization problem. In particular, in the example of Fig. 10 the proposed multi-objective
optimization design problem has been solved by considering the min-max technique of the
Matlab Optimization Toolbox that makes use of a scalar function of the vector function F (X)
to minimize the worst case values among the objective function components fi.
The problem for achieving optimal results from the formulated multi-objective optimization
problem consists mainly in two aspects, namely to choose a proper numerical solving
technique and to formulate the optimality criteria with computational efficiency.
Indeed, the solving technique can be selected among the many available ones, even in
commercial software packages, by looking at a proper fit and/or possible adjustments to the
formulated problem in terms of number of unknowns, non-linearity type, and involved
computations for the optimality criteria and constraints. On the other hand, the formulation
and computations for the optimality criteria and design constraints can be deduced and
performed by looking also at the peculiarity of the numerical solving technique.
Those two aspects can be very helpful in achieving an optimal design procedure that can
give solutions with no great computational efforts and with possibility of engineering
interpretation and guide.
Since the formulated design problem is intrinsically high no-linear, the solution can be
obtained when the numerical evolution of the tentative solutions due to the iterative process
converges to a solution that can be considered optimal within the explored range. Therefore

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64 Robot Manipulators

a solution can be considered an optimal design but as a local optimum in general terms. This
last remark makes clear once more the influence of suitable formulation with computational
efficiency for the involved criteria and constraints in order to have a design procedure,
which is significant from engineering viewpoint and numerically efficient.

Figure 10. A general scheme for optimum design procedure by using multi-objective
optimization problem solvable by commercial software

4. Experimental validation of manipulators

Engineering approach for kinematic design is completed by experimental activity for
validation of theories and numerical algorithms and for validation and evaluation of
prototypes and their performance as last design phase. Experimental activity can be carried
out at several levels depending on the aims and development sequence:
• by checking mechanical design and assembly problems for manipulators and test-beds;
• by looking at operation characteristics of tasks and manipulator architectures;
• by simulating manipulators both in terms of kinematic capability and dynamic actions;
• by validating prototype performance in term of evaluation of errors from expected
behavior.
Construction activity is aimed to check the feasibility of practical implementation of
designed manipulators. Assembly possibilities are investigated also by looking at alternative

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 65

components. The need to obtain quickly a validation of the prototypes as well as of novel
architectures has developed techniques of rapid prototyping that facilitate this activity both
in term of cost and time. Test-beds are developed by using or adjusting specific prototypes
or specific manipulator architectures. Once a physical system is available, it can be used
both to characterize performance of built prototypes and to further investigate on operation
characteristics for optimality criteria and validation purposes. At this stage a prototype can
be used as a test-bed or even can be evolved to a test-bed for future studies. This activity can
be carried out as an experimental simulation of built prototypes both for functionality and
feasibility in novel applications. From mechanical engineering viewpoint, experimental
activity is understood as carried out with built systems with considerable experiments for
verifying operation efficiency and mechanical design feasibility. Recently experimental
activity is understood even only through numerical simulations by using sophisticated
simulation codes (like for example ADAMS).
The above mentioned activity can be also considered as completing or being preliminary to
a rigorous experimental validation, which is carried out through evaluation of performance
and task operation both in qualitative and quantitative terms by using previously developed
experimental procedures.

5. Experiences at LARM in Cassino

As an example of the above-mentioned aspects illustrative cases of study are reported from
the activity of LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino in Figs. 11-19.
Since the beginning of 1990s at LARM in Cassino, a research line has been dedicated to the
development of analysis formulation and experimental activity for manipulator design and
performance characterization. More details and further references can be found in the
LARM webpage http://webuser.unicas.it/weblarm/larmindex.htm.
Workspace has been analyzed to characterize its manifold and to formulate efficient
evaluation algorithms. Scanning procedure and algebraic formulation for workspace
boundary have been proposed. Results can be obtained likewise in the illustrative examples
in Fig. 11.

a) b)
Figure 11. Illustrative examples of results of workspace determination through : a) binary
representation in scanning procedure; b) algebraic formulation of workspace boundary

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66 Robot Manipulators

A design algorithm has been proposed as an inversion of the algebraic formulation to give
all possible solutions like for the reported case of 3R manipulator in Fig.12.
Further study has been carried out to characterize the geometry of ring (internal) voids as
outlined in Fig.13.
A workspace characterization has been completed by looking at design constraints for
solvable workspace in the form of the so-called Feasible Workspace Regions. The case of 2R
manipulators has been formulated and general topology has been determined for design
purposes, as reported in Fig. 14.
Singularity analysis and stiffness evaluation have been approached to obtain formulation
and procedure that are useful also for experimental identification, operation validation, and
performance testing. Singularity analysis has been approached by using arguments of
Descriptive Geometry to represent singularity conditions for parallel manipulators through
suitable formulation of Jacobians via Cayley-Grassman determinates or domain analysis.
Figure 15 shows examples how using tetrahedron geometry in 3-2-1- parallel manipulators
has determined straightforward the shown singular configurations.

Figure 12. Design solutions for 3R manipulators by inverting algebraic formulation for
workspace boundary when boundary points are given: a) all possible solutions; b) feasible
workspace designs

Figure 13. Manifolds for ring void of 3R manipulators

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 67

Figure 14. General geometry of Feasible Workspace Regions for 2R manipulators depicted as
grey area

Figure 15. Determination of singularity configuration of a wire 3-2-1 parallel manipulator by

looking at the descriptive geometry of the manipulator architecture
Recently, optimal design procedures have been formulated and experienced by using multi-
criteria optimization problem when Precision Points equations have been combined with
suitable numerical evaluation of performances. An attempt has been proposed to obtain a
unique design procedure both for serial and parallel manipulators through the objective
formulation

(
f1 ( X ) = 1 − Vpos Vpos ' )
f2 ( X ) = 1 − (Vor Vor ')

min (det J )
f3 ( X ) = − (14)
(det J 0 )
(
f4 ( X ) = 1 − ΔU d ΔU g )
f ( X ) = 1 − ( ΔY
5 d ΔYg )

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68 Robot Manipulators

where Vpos and Vor values correspond to computed position and orientation workspace
volume V and prime values describe prescribed data; J is the manipulator Jacobian with
respect to a prescribed one Jo; ΔUd and ΔUg are compliant displacements along X, Y, and Z-
axes, ΔYd and ΔYg are compliant rotations about ϕ, θ and ψ; d and g stand for design and
given values, respectively. Illustrative example results are reported in Figs.16 and 17 as
referring to a PUMA-like manipulator and a CAPAMAN (Cassino Parallel Manipulator)
design.
Experimental activity has been particularly focused on construction and functionality
validation of prototypes of parallel manipulators that have been developed at LARM under
the acronym CAPAMAN (Cassino Parallel Manipulator). Figures 18 and 19 shows examples
of experimental layouts and results that have been obtained for characterizing design
performance and application feasibility of CAPAMAN design.

14
F
12

Objective functions 10
8
f3
6
4 f2
2 f1
0
f5 f4
-2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
iteration
a) b)
Figure 16. Evolution of the function F and its components versus number of iterations in an
optimal design procedure: a) for a PUMA-like robot; b) a CAPAMAN design in Fig.15a).
(position workspace volume as f1; orientation workspace volume as f2; singularity condition
as f3; compliant translations and rotations as f4 and f5)
300
bk
sk
250 hk
Design parameters [mm]

rp
ak
200 ck
hk
150
ak
100
sk
rp
50
bk
ck
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
iteration
a) b)
Figure 17. Evolution of design parameters versus number of iterations for: a) PUMA-like
robot in Fig.16a); CAPAMAN in Fig.16b)

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 69

a) b) c)
Figure 18. Built prototypes of different versions of CAPAMAN: a) basic architecture; b) 2-nd
version; c) 3-rd version in multi-module assembly

a) b) c)
Figure 19. Examples of validation tests for numerical evaluation of CAPAMAN: a) in
experimental determination of workspace volume and compliant response; b) in an
application as earthquake simulator; c) results of numerical evaluation of acceleration errors
in simulating an happened earthquake

6. Future challenges
The topic of kinematic design of manipulators, both for robots and multi-body systems,
addresses and will address yet attention for research and practical purposes in order to
achieve better design solutions but even more efficient computational design algorithms. An
additional aspect that cannot be considered of secondary importance, can be advised in the
necessity of updating design procedures and algorithms for implementation in modern
current means from Informatics Technology (hardware and software) that is still evolving
very fast.
Thus, future challenges for the development of the field of kinematic design of manipulators
and multi-body systems at large, can be recognized, beside the investigation for new design
solutions, in:
• more exhaustive design procedures, even including mechatronic approaches;
• updated implementation of traditional and new theories of Kinematics into new
Informatics frames.

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70 Robot Manipulators

Research activity is often directed to new solutions but because the reached highs in the field
mainly from theoretical viewpoints, manipulator design still needs a wide application in
practical engineering. This requires better understanding of the theories at level of practicing
engineers and user-oriented formulation of theories, even by using experimental activity.
Thus, the above-mentioned challenges can be included in a unique frame, which is oriented to
a transfer of research results to practical applications of design solutions and procedures.
Mechatronic approaches are needed to achieve better practical design solutions by taking
into account the construction complexity and integration of current solutions and by
considering that future systems will be overwhelmed by many sub-systems of different
natures other than mechanical counterpart. Although the mechanical aspects of
manipulation will be always fundamental because of the mechanical nature of manipulative
tasks, the design and operation of manipulators and multi-body systems at large will be
more and more influenced by the design and operation of the other sub-systems for sensors,
control, artificial intelligence, and programming through a multidisciplinary
approach/integration. This aspect is completed by the fact that the Informatics Technology
provides day by day new potentialities both in software and hardware for computational
purposes but even for technical supports of other technologies. This pushes to re-elaborate
design procedures and algorithms in suitable formulation and logics that can be
used/adapted for implementation in the evolving Informatics.
Additional efforts are requested by system users and practitioner engineers to operate with
calculation means (codes and procedures in commercial software packages) that are more
and more efficient in term of computation time and computational results (numerical
accuracy and generality of solutions) as well as more and more user-oriented design
formulation in term of understand ability of design process and its theory. This is a great
challenge: since while more exhaustive algorithms and new procedures (with mechatronic
approaches) are requested, nevertheless the success of future developments of the field
strongly depends on the capability of the researchers of expressing the research result that
will be more and more specialist (and sophisticated) products, in a language (both for
calculation and explanatory purposes) that should not need a very sophisticate expertise.

7. Conclusion
Since the beginning of Robotics the complexity of the kinematic design of manipulators has
been solved with a variety of approaches that are based on Theory of Mechanisms, Screw
Theory, or Kinematics Geometry. Algorithms and design procedures have evolved and still
address research attention with the aim to improve the computational efficiency and
generality of formulation in order to obtain all possible solutions for a given manipulation
problem, even by taking into account other features in a mechatronic approach. Theoretical
and numerical approaches can be successfully completed by experimental activity, which is
still needed for performance characterization and feasibility tests of prototypes and design
algorithms

8. References
The reference list is limited to main works for further reading and to author’s main
experiences. Citation of references has not included in the text since the subjects refer to a
very reach literature that has not included for space limits.

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Kinematic Design of Manipulators 71

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 Robot Manipulators
Edited by Marco Ceccarelli

ISBN 978-953-7619-06-0
Hard cover, 546 pages
Publisher InTech
Published online 01, September, 2008
Published in print edition September, 2008

In this book we have grouped contributions in 28 chapters from several authors all around the world on the
several aspects and challenges of research and applications of robots with the aim to show the recent
advances and problems that still need to be considered for future improvements of robot success in worldwide
frames. Each chapter addresses a specific area of modeling, design, and application of robots but with an eye
to give an integrated view of what make a robot a unique modern system for many different uses and future
potential applications. Main attention has been focused on design issues as thought challenging for improving
capabilities and further possibilities of robots for new and old applications, as seen from today technologies
and research programs. Thus, great attention has been addressed to control aspects that are strongly
evolving also as function of the improvements in robot modeling, sensors, servo-power systems, and
informatics. But even other aspects are considered as of fundamental challenge both in design and use of
robots with improved performance and capabilities, like for example kinematic design, dynamics, vision
integration.

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