Abstract
Redundant non-serial manipulators that include a spectrum of parallel and non-parallel heavy load bearing construction and material handling equipment are treated, using foundations of differential geometry. Kinematics of this category of manipulator are defined in manipulator configuration space by algebraic equations in input and output coordinates that cannot be explicitly solved for either as a function of the other. New sets called assembly components of manipulator configuration space are defined that partition the space into maximal, path-connected, disjoint, topological components. All configurations within an assembly component can be connected by one or more continuous paths within that component, but configurations in different assembly components cannot be connected by continuous paths. Forward and inverse kinematically singular configurations are characterized by criteria that partition each assembly component into path-connected, singularity-free assembly components in which equations of kinematics and dynamics are well behaved. It is shown that a generalized inverse velocity-based kinematic formulation that is problematic for serial manipulators is likewise plagued with problems for non-serial implicit manipulators that can be avoided using the methods presented. Singularity-free differentiable manipulator configuration space components are defined and parameterized by both input and operational coordinates, leading to well-posed ordinary differential equations of manipulator dynamics in both input and operational coordinates. Three typical applications and associated model problems are studied throughout the paper to illustrate the methods and results presented.
