A geometrical alternative to Jacobian rank deficiency method for planar workspace characterisation

The workspace of a serial manipulators is defined as the area covered by its extremity for a finite number of degrees of freedom. In order to define its boundaries, a pure geometrical interpretation of the jacobian’s property is applied, in opposite to the specific methods or symbolic calculation as proposed in the literature. This solution leads to a general and exact description of the boundaries, independent of the number of degrees of freedom in the planar case and compatible with real-time computation as required in robotics.