Book Review: Advances in Robot Kinematics: Analysis and Control

This book contains the proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics, held in Strobl, Austria, in 1998. This is a specialist conference attracting about 100 participants, and is held once every two years in the Alpe-Adria region of Europe. My first impression is that this is a sturdy, well-made book with good quality print and paper. My second impression is that it is bigger than previous volumes in the series. There are 58 papers in this book, which is significantly more than in any previous year, and suggests that this conference is growing in popularity. Parallel robots continue to be the most popular topic. The first paper in the book presents a Stewart-Gough platform with 40 real solutions to the forward-kinematics problem, which is the theoretical upper limit, complete with numerical values and illustrations for each one. The section on the kinematics of parallel robots contains nine papers, dealing with issues like the kinematic equations of specific mechanisms, investigation of singularities, characterizing workspaces (available forces as well as available motions), and mechanism-synthesis techniques. The next section, on direct analysis and design of parallel robots, continues with another seven papers on new parallel mechanisms, forward kinematics of particular mechanisms, a geometric model for use in calibration, and an interesting paper investigating workspaces, assembly modes, and their consequences for trajectory planning. The section on control and design contains a variety of papers. Topics include a technique for computing the center of mass of a kinematic tree; a method for automatically generating a calibration model for a robot mechanism, including both geometric and nongeometric parameters; the design of an optimally omnidirectional underwater vehicle; a method for analyzing the slop (backlash, joint clearances, etc.) in a closed-loop mechanism by means of a linearized model and quadratic programming; and an analysis of prismatic joints in flexible bodies. The next three sections launch into heavy-duty kinematics: real-number screws, dual-number screws, tanhalf-angle screws, finite-displacement screws, reciprocal screws, nonreciprocal screws, Lie groups, Lie algebras, quaternions, dual quaternions, projective geometry, Plücker coordinates, linear complexes, all sorts of invariants, and so on. Some of these papers are strictly for the experts. There are also a few papers on (bizarre and enigmatic) overconstrained mechanisms, and a couple of papers on search techniques (genetic algorithms and interval arithmetic). Several papers consider the problem of architectural singularity of parallel mechanisms, or “how to design a parallel mechanism so that it doesn’t work.” The final section is on “biorobotics,” and contains some papers on accurate kinematic models of human limbs, analysis of assisted walking gaits, kinematic calibration of a patientpositioning robot, and an interesting paper on how to provide haptic feedback (to a fingertip) in a virtual-reality environment. The book contains a subject index, which is a welcome addition, but it isn’t long enough to be really useful; and I see that the contents (titles and authors) are searchable on at least one scientific literature database. I would recommend this book to all serious kinematics researchers on the grounds that it contains a greater concentration of kinematics theory, results, and ideas than you would find in a general robotics conference. I would also mention that the increased length has been achieved without any lowering of standards.