A Generalized Solution to the Inverse Kinematics of Robotic Manipulators

In the context of kinematic control of a robotic manipulator if a certain set of task space coordinates (end effector position and orientation) are commanded then the corresponding configuration space coordinates (joint variables) must be provided. The joint variables are obtained by solving the “inverse kinematics problem.” Typically a solution to the problem can be obtained in closed-form; however, such a solution is inherently manipulator-dependent. The paper presents an approach for providing a generalized inverse kinematics solution which is manipulator-independent. The solution is based on an iterative procedure. An algorithm was developed and demonstrated using the PUMA-560 and Stanford manipulator models.