MEHRAN UNIVERSITY

OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, JAMSHORO

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, DEPARTMENT
B.E MECHATRONIC ENGINEERING PROGRAM

ROBOTICS

REPRESENTATION OF
FRAMES
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 FORWARD AND INVERSE KINEMATIC

Kinematics: Kinematics studies the motion of bodies without consideration of

the forces or moments that cause the motion.

The robot kinematics can be divided into forward kinematics and inverse
kinematics.

Forward Kinematics (FK): Finding the goal position of end effector by given
the joint angles.

Inverse Kinematics (IK): Finding the joint angles for the robot arm for given a
goal position of end effector

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 MATRIX REPRESENTATION

Matrices can be used to represent points,

vectors, frames, translations, rotations,
transformations, as well as objects and other
kinematic elements.
Representation of a Point in Space:
A point P in space (Figure-1) can be
represented by its three coordinates relative to a
reference frame as:

Representation of a Vector in Space:

A vector P in Figure-2 can be represented by
three coordinates of its tail and its head. If the
vector starts at point A and ends at point B,
then it can be represented by:

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 MATRIX REPRESENTATION

These three components of the vector can also be

written in matrix form, as in Equation:

The distance between 2 points in 3-dimensional space

is:

the magnitude of the vector is given by:

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 MATRIX REPRESENTATION

This representation can be slightly modified to

also include a scale factor w such that if Px, Py,
and Pz are divided by w, they will yield ax, by,
and cz. Therefore the vector can be written as:

w may be any number and, as it changes, it can

change the overall size of the vector.

This is known as scaling or zooming function.

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 MATRIX REPRESENTATION

When w is 1, the size of these components remains

unchanged. However, if w = 0, then ax, by, and cz
will be infinity.
The direction vector is represented by the three
components of the vector.
This means that a direction vector can be represented
by a scale factor of w = 0, where the length is not
important,
Problem # 1:
A vector is described as P =3i + 5j + 2k. Express the vector
in matrix form:
(a) With a scale factor of 2.
(b) If it were to describe a direction as a unit vector.
Problem # 2:
A vector p is 5 units long and is in the direction of a unit
vector q described below. Express the vector in matrix form. 6
 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME AT THE
ORIGIN OF A FIXED REFERENCE FRAME

A frame is generally represented by three

mutually orthogonal axes (such as x, y, and z).
There are more than one frame at any given
time.
A set of axes x, y, and z to represent the fixed
Universe/word reference frame Fx;y;z and it is
also known as zero frame F0.

A set of axes n, o, and a to represent joint

(moving) frame Fn;o;a relative to the
reference/word frame. it is also known as first
frame F1.

The frame at each joint will be write as F0, F1,

F2, F3, F4 etc.

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME AT THE
ORIGIN OF A FIXED REFERENCE FRAME
Origin of both frames
A frame is generally represented by three mutually on same point.
orthogonal axes (such as x, y, and z).
There are more than one frame at any given time.
A set of axes x, y, and z to represent the fixed
Universe/word reference frame Fx;y;z and it is also
known as zero frame F0.
A set of axes n, o, and a to represent joint (moving)
frame Fn;o;a relative to the reference/word frame. it
is also known as first frame F1.
The frame at each joint will be write as F0, F1, F2,
F3, F4 etc. Representation of frames for (Fx0y0z0 and
Fx1y1z1), (Fxyz and Fnoa) are as:

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME AT THE
ORIGIN OF A FIXED REFERENCE FRAME

X and Y axis rotates around Z axis

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME AT THE
ORIGIN OF A FIXED REFERENCE FRAME

Y and Z axis rotates around X axis

X and Z axis rotates around Y axis

X and Y axis rotates around Z axis

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME IN A FRAME
Origin of both frames
are at some distance
To fully describe a frame relative to another frame, both
the location of its origin and the directions of its axes must
be specified.
Its location relative to the reference frame is described by
a vector-P between the origin of the frame and the origin
of the reference frame.
Therefore, the frame can be expressed by three vectors
describing its directional unit vectors and a fourth vector
describing its location as:
The first three (3 X 3) vectors are directional
vectors with w = 0.
The fourth vector (1 X 3) with w = 1
represents the location of the origin of the
frame relative to the reference frame.
The length of vector p is important.
Consequently, we use a scale factor of 1
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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME IN A FRAME
Origin of both frames
are at some distance
Example:
The frame F shown in Figure is located at 3,5,7 units, with
its n-axis parallel to x, its o-axis at 45 relative to the y-
axis, and its a-axis at 45 relative to the z-axis. The frame
can be described by:

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME IN A FRAME

An object can be represented in space by attaching a frame to it and representing the

frame. Since the object is permanently attached to this frame, its position and
orientation relative to the frame is always known.
As a result, so long as the frame can be described in space, the object’s location and
orientation relative to the fixed frame will be known.
The constraints come from the known characteristics of a frame that:
1- The three unit vectors n, o, a are mutually perpendicular, and
2- Each unit vector’s length, represented by its directional cosines, must be equal to 1.
These constraints translate into the following six constraint equations:
1: n  o = 0 (the dot-product of n and o vectors must be zero)
2: n  a = 0
3: a  o = 0
4: |n| = 1 (the magnitude of the length of the vector must be 1)
5: |o| = 1
6: |a| = 1
As a result, the values representing a frame in a matrix must be such that the
above equations remain true. Otherwise, the frame will not be correct. 13
 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME IN A FRAME

Example#2;
For the following frame, find the values of the missing elements and complete the
matrix representation of the frame:

METHOD-I
Solution

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME IN A FRAME

Example#2;
For the following frame, find the values of the missing elements and complete the
matrix representation of the frame:

METHOD-I
Solution

Note: nx and
ax must have
the same
sign.

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME IN A FRAME

Example#2;
Verified Frame 1 is valid
For the following frame, find the values of the missing elements and complete the
matrix representation of the frame:

METHOD-I
Verification
The same problem may be verified using n Cross product method:

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 REPRESENTATION OF A FRAME IN A FRAME

Example;
For the following frame, find the values of the missing elements and complete the
matrix representation of the frame:

METHOD-II
Solution

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 BOOKS

1- Introduction to Robotics: Analysis, Control, Applications

By Saeed Benjamin Niku
Latest edition

2- Introduction to Robotics Mechanics and Control

By John J. Craig
3rd Edition

3- Theory of Applied Robotics

Kinematics, Dynamics and Control,
By Reza N. Jazar
2nd edition

4- Robotics, Vision and Control,

Fundamental Algorithms in Matlab
By Peter Corke
2nd Edition
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