Symbolic computation of robot manipulator kinematics

A software package has been developed to solve, symbolically, the direct and inverse kinematics of an n-degree-of-freedom manipulator. As an input, SRAST (symbolic robot arm solution tool) expects the corresponding parameters described by Denavit and Hartenberg (1955). As an output it generates (in closed form) the direct- and inverse-kinematics solutions. When solving the inverse kinematics it is capable of excluding solutions with the n, o, and a vectors, dealing with redundant manipulators, and documenting how the solutions were found. SRAST implements its own symbolic processor and makes use of artificial intelligence techniques. To solve the inverse kinematics, eleven trigonometric rules are heuristically applied to identify a mathematical set of solutions. SRAST has successfully solved a number of industrial manipulators. At present it is the only software package capable of generating the inverse kinematics in symbolic form