Robotics
Examples of forward and reverse robotic kinematics calculations using Matlab and Simulink.
To obtain the forward kinematics the robot was moved by hand while logging the 3D position of the end effector. Using the logged data alongside the four known Denavit–Hartenberg parameters of each link, the motion path of the robot can be rebuilt in 3D space. Pictured below is the rebuilt path alongside the Matlab code and Simulink block diagram.
Inverse kinematics need only the length of each link and the x, y, and z coordinates for the end effector to calculate the angles that each link of the robot needs to make to reach each end-effector position. With the 3D path found using the forward kinematics the angle of each link for a given end effector position can be found.
Link angles are input into a Jacobian matrix to calculate the overall movement of the robot's links for each end-effector position. The output can then be used with any robot with the same DH parameters and link lengths to create custom paths. The robot demonstration above gives one such example of a custom path created using inverse kinematics.