Jacobians:

Velocities and Static Force

Amirkabir University of Technology

Computer Engineering & Information Technology Department
http://ce.aut.ac.ir/~shiry/lecture/robotics-2004/robotics04.html
Example 5.3
Calculate the velocity
of the tip of the arm
as a function of joint
rates?

A 2-link manipulator with rotational joints

Example 5.3
Frame assignments for the two link
manipulator
Example 5.3
We compute link transformations:

c1  s1 0 0 c 2  s2 0 l1  1 0 0 l2 
s c1 0 0 s c2 0 0  0 1 0 0 
1T 
0  1
, 1
T   2
, 3T 
2  .
0 0 1 0
2
0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
     
0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
Example 5.3
Link to link transformation
0 0 
1
1   0 , 1
v1  0,
1  0
 0   c2 s2 0  0  l1s21 
 
2
2   0 , 2
v2   s2 c2 0 l11   l1c21 ,
1  2   0 0 1  0   0 
 l1s21 
   l s 0  
3
3  2  2 , 3
v3  l1c21  l2 (1  2 )    1 2
 
1
.
 
l1c2  l2 l2   2 
 0 
 
Example 5.3
Velocities with respect to non
moving base
c12  s12 0
0
R  0
R 1
R 2
R  s c 0 .
3 1 2 3  12 12 
 0 0 1
 l1s11  l2 s12 (1  2 )
      l1s1  l2 s12  l2 s12  1 
0
v3  3 R v3   l1c11  l2 c12 (1   2 )   
0 3
   .
 l1c1  l2 c12 l2 c12   2 
 0 
 
Derivative of a Vector Function

If we have a vector function r which

represents a particle’s position as a
function of time t:


r  rx ry rz 

dr  drx dry drz 

 
dt  dt dt dt 
Vector Derivatives
We’ve seen how to take a derivative of
a vector vs. A scalar
What about the derivative of a vector
vs. A vector?
Jacobian
A Jacobian is a vector derivative with respect
to another vector
If we have f(x), the Jacobian is a matrix of
partial derivatives- one partial derivative for
each combination of components of the
vectors
The Jacobian is usually written as j(f,x), but
you can really just think of it as df/dx
Jacobian

 f1 f1 f1 

 x ...
x2 x N 
 1 
 f 2 f 2
... ... 
J  f , x    x1 x2 
 ... ... ... ... 
 f f M 
 M
... ... 
 x1 x N 
Partial Derivatives
The use of the ∂ symbol instead of d for
partial derivatives just implies that it is
a single component in a vector
derivative.
Jacobian
y1  f1 ( x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 , x6 ),
y2  f 2 ( x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 , x6 ),

y6  f 6 ( x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 , x5 , x6 ), Y  F ( X ).
f1 f1 f1
y1  x1  x2    x6 ,
x1 x2 x6
f 2 f f
y2  x1  2 x2    2 x6 , Chain rule
x1 x2 x6 J(X)

f 6 f f F
y6  x1  6 x2    6 x6 , Y  X .
x1 x2 x6 X
Jacobian
In the field of robotics, we generally speak of
Jacobians which relate joint velocities to
Cartesian velocities of the tip of the arm.

Y  J ( X ) X .
 0
v 0 .
0
V   0   J ()
 
Jacobian
.
For a 6 joint robot the Jacobian is 6x6, 
is a 6x1 and v is 6x1.
The number of rows in Jacobian is equal
to number of degrees of freedom in
Cartesian space and the number of
columns is equal to the number of joints.

0 0 
V  J ()
Jacobian
In example 5.3 we had:
 l1s11  l2 s12 (1  2 )
      l1s1  l2 s12  l2 s12  1 
0
v3  3 R v3   l1c11  l2 c12 (1   2 )   
0 3
   .
 l1c1  l2 c12 l2 c12   2 
 0 
 
Thus:  l1s1  l2 s12  l2 s12 
0
J ()  
 l1c1  l2 c12 l2 c12 
And also:
 l1s2 0
3
J ( )   
l1c2  l2 l2 
Jacobian
Jacobian might be found by directly
differentiating the kinematic equations of
the mechanism for linear velocity,
however there is no 3x1 orientation vector
whose derivative is rotational velocity.
Thus we get Jacobian using successive
application of:
i 1
vi 1  R( vi  i  Pi 1 )
i 1
i
i i i

 i 1 ˆ
i 1  R i   i 1 Z i 1
i 1 i 1
i
i
Singularities
Given a transformation relating joint velocity to
Cartesian velocity then
Is this matrix invertible? ( Is it non singular)
0 0 
V  J ()

1
  J ( )v
det[ J ]  0 : singularity
det[ J ]  0 : non  singularity
 Singularities
Singularities are categorized into two class:
Workspace boundary singularities:
Occur when the manipulator is fully streched or
folded back on itself.
Workspace interior singularities:
Are away from workspace boundary and are
caused by two or more joint axes lining up.
All manipulators have singularity at boundaries of their
workspace. In a singular configuration one or more degree of
freedom is lost. ( movement is impossible )
Degeneracy and Dexterity
 Degeneracy and Dexterity
Degeneracy : The robot looses a degree of freedom
and thus cannot perform as desired.
When the robot’s joints reach their physical limits,
and as a result, cannot move any further.
In the middle point of its workspace if the z-axes of
two similar joints becomes colinear. Fig. 2.31 An
example of a robot in a degenerate position.
Dexterity : The volume of points where one can
position the robot as desired, but not orientate it.
Example 5.4
In example 5.3 we had:
 l1s2 0
3
J ()  
l1c2  l2 l2 

l1s2 0
DET [ J ( )] | J ( ) |  l1l2 s2  0.
l1c2  l2 l2
 2  0 ,180 
 
Workspace boundary singularities
Example 5.5
The tip of two link robot traces the path A to
B with a uniform velocity of 1.0 m/s as shown
in fig. Show that both the joint velocities are
excessively high when the tip is near point A.
Take l1=l2=0.3m.
Example 5.5
1 1  l2c12 l2 s12 
0
J ( )   l c  l c  .
 1 1 2 12  l1s1  l2 s12 
l1l2 s2
 c12 s12 c12
1  x
 y
 x  sin ce  x  1; y  0
l1s2 l1s2 l1s2
 c12
1  ,
l1s2
 c1 c12
2    .
l2 s2 l1s2

As the arm stretches out toward 2=0 both

joint rates go to infinity
Static Forces in Manipulators
Force and moments propagation

To solve for joint

torques in static
equilibrium

fi  force exerted on link i by link i-1

ni  torque exerted on link i by link i-1

Static Forces in Manipulators
Solve for the joint torques which must be acting
to keep the system in static equilibrium.

Summing the force and

setting them equal to zero

i
f i  f i 1  0
i

Summing the torques about

the origin of frame i
i
ni  i ni 1  i Pi 1i f i 1  0
Static Forces in Manipulators
i
f i  f i 1 ,
i Working down from last link to the base we
formulate the force moment expressions
i
ni  i ni 1  iPi 1i f i 1.

Static force propagation

i
f i  i 1i R i 1f i 1 , from link to link:
i
ni  i 1i R i 1ni 1  iPi 1i f i .

Important question: What torques  i  n Zˆ i .

i Ti
i
are needed at the joint to balance
reaction forces and moments acting  i  if i T i Zˆ i .
on the links?
Work-energy Principle
The change in the kinetic energy of an
object is equal to the net work done on
the object.
 Principle of Virtual Work

External virtual work equals the internal virtual strain energy.

Jacobians in the Force Domain
Work is the dot product of a vector force or torque and a
vector displacement

F  X    
It can be written as: FT X   T 
The definition of jacobian is
X  j
FT J   T   FT J   T .
So we have
  J F. T

  J F.
0 T0
Cartesian Transformation of
Velocities and Static Forces
General velocity of a body

v 3 x1 linear velocity

V 
ω  3 x1 angular velocity

General force of a body

F  3 x1 force vector
F 
N  3 x1 moment vector

6 x 6 transformations map these quantities from one frame

to another.
Cartesian Transformation of
Velocities and Static Forces
 i 1 ˆ
i 1
  R  
i 1 i
i 1 i i Z . (5.45)
i 1 i 1

Since two frames are rigidly connected  i 1  0
 B vB   AB R  ABR APBORG   A v A 
B    B  A 
 wB   0 A R w
 A 

Where the cross product is  0  pz py 

the matrix operator  
P   p z 0  px 
 p y px 0 

Cartesian Transformation of
Velocities and Static Forces
We use the term velocity transformation

B
vB  T v
A
B v
A
A

 B vB   AB R  ABR APBORG   A v A 
B     A 
 B   0  A 
B
AR

Description of velocity in terms of A when given the quantities in B

 A v A   BA R A
PBORG  BA R   B vB 
A     B 
 A   0   B 
A
BR

A
v A  T vB
A
B v
B
Cartesian Transformation of Velocities
and Static Forces
A force-moment transformation

 A FA   A
BR
0   B FB 
A   A A  B 
N P  A
 A   BORG B R R
B  N B 

A
FA  ABT f B
FB

With similarity to Jacobians

A
BTf  T A
B v
T
Example 5.8
Frames of interest with a force sensor

T
FT TST f S FS ,
 T
SR 0
ST f   T
T
T 
.

 SORG S R
P T
S R
Next Course:

Manipulator Dynamics

Amirkabir University of Technology

Computer Engineering & Information Technology Department