Characterizing spatial redundant manipulator singularities

A general methodology for the classification of kinematically redundant spatial manipulator singular configurations is presented. The singular configurations are classified based on the possibility of reconfiguration into a nonsingular posture using self-motion. For one degree-of-freedom redundancy manipulators, an alignment condition is introduced, and methods from dynamical systems analysis and the center manifold theorem are used to characterize singularities.<<ETX>>