A Solution to the Inverse Kinematics of Redundant Manipulators

A solution to the inverse kinematics is a set of joint coordinates which correspond to a given set of task space coordinates (position and orientation of end effector). For the class of kinematically redundant robots the solution is generically nonunique such that special methods are required for obtaining a solution. The paper presents a new algorithm for solving the inverse kinematics which is based on a modified Newton-Raphson iterative technique. The new algorithm is efficient, converges rapidly, and completely generalizes the solution of the inverse kinematics problem for redundant robots. The method is illustrated by a numerical example.