Modeling and Kinematic Analysis of a Robotic Manipulator for Street Cleaning Applications Using Screw Theory

Abstract

In this article, a robotic manipulator for performing street cleaning operation is proposed. Kinematic analysis is performed for the proposed robotic manipulator using screw theory. Forward kinematics of the manipulator is executed utilizing the product of exponential (POE) formulations and the inverse kinematics is performed using Paden–Kahan (PK) sub-problems. The implementation of these sub-problems leads to provide multiple solutions and a geometric view to the inverse kinematic analysis. Joint angles for a desired trajectory of the end effector are taken from @SolidWorks. These angles are fed to the forward kinematic algorithm that gives a series of homogeneous transformation matrices (HTM). This HTM is taken as input in the PK inverse kinematics algorithm. Algorithms for the forward and inverse kinematic analysis are executed using MATLAB. The joint angle solutions obtained using PK sub-problems for the series of desired configurations are compared with the conventional numerical inverse kinematics technique, to know the computational efficiency of the solutions obtained. The solutions obtained from the considered algorithms are implemented on a virtual robot created in V-REP robotic simulation environment. The solutions obtained with the above approach play a vital role in robot control, design, and path planning.