Basis sets for manipulator inertial parameters

An approach to the problem of finding the minimum number of inertial parameters of the robot manipulator dynamic equations of motion is presented. Based on the energy difference equation, it is equally applicable to serial-link graph-structured manipulators. The authors prove that the minimum number of parameters can be obtained directly from an energy difference equation rather than the dynamic equations of motion. They present a method for the identification of the minimum number of basis vectors which span the vector space containing the components of inertial parameters present in the equations of motion. Simulations are presented and the method is evaluated. The method is conceptually simple, computationally efficient and easy to implement. In particular, the manipulator kinematics and the joint positions and velocities are the only inputs to the algorithm