Courses / theory

Arm Kinematics

advanced~15 hours14 lessonsEnvironment: pyodide

Prerequisites: maths-for-robotics

Start: Links, joints, and degrees of freedomPractice questions

Modules

Module 1 — Manipulator anatomy
  1. 1Links, joints, and degrees of freedom
  2. 2Workspace and configuration space
  3. 3Widget: 2-DOF arm playground
Module 2 — Forward kinematics
  1. 1Transform chains along an arm
  2. 2DH parameters
  3. 3FK for a 3-DOF arm in NumPy
Module 3 — Inverse kinematics
  1. 1The IK problem: multiple and no solutions
  2. 2Analytic IK for a planar arm
  3. 3Numerical IK
  4. 4Widget: drag-the-end-effector IK
Module 4 — Jacobians
  1. 1Velocity kinematics
  2. 2The Jacobian matrix
  3. 3Singularities
  4. 4Project: Jacobian-based arm controller in NumPy

Textbooks

  • Modern Robotics (Ch. 4–6) — Lynch & Parkfree-book
  • Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics and Control — John Craigbook

Video resources

  • Official course videos — Modern Robotics (Northwestern)