A command generator for 6 D-o-F robotic manipulators

A command generator that accepts position and orientation trajectories in Cartesian space and produces position, velocity, and acceleration trajectories in joint space is presented. A new representation of orientation is introduced in which angular velocities are integrable combinations of finite angular rotations. This is accomplished by an internal overparameterization. The resulting command generator has the following properties: 1) errors are decoupled, and 2) bounds on those errors are easily computed. The application of the scheme to 6 degree of freedom manipulators is demonstrated through simulation results for a spherical-wrist robot.