Abstract
Screw theory refers to the algebra and calculus of six-dimensional entities formed with ordered pairs of three-dimensional vectors related by a reference point, as forces and moments as well as angular and linear velocities concerned with the kinematics and dynamics of a rigid body. Sir Robert Stawell Ball developed the conceptual framework of the theory of screws more than one century ago for applications in kinematics and statics of rigid body mechanics (Ball, The theory of screws: a study in the dynamics of a rigid body. Dublin, Hodges, Foster and Company, 1876). Although screw theory remained only as a promissory mathematical tool for many more years, it has become an important tool in computational geometry, robot mechanics, multibody dynamics, and more recently in the higher-order kinematic analyses of a rigid body. This chapter comprises a brief review of prominent contributions concerned with the development of screw theory.
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