Kinematic analysis and simulation for modular manipulators based on screw theory

Based on the screw theory, through analyzing the kinematic relationship of modular robots for velocity model and incremental displacement model, an inverse kinematic approach was developed for modular redundant robots. Since it can be assumed that modular robots have any possible DOFs and configurations, will be assembled and disassembled often, and are easily reconfigured because of having the series and standardization components, a simulation system with self-modeling function for modular manipulators was developed. This simulation system consists of module editor, robot builder, graphical teaching pendants, and motion planning pendants. The effectiveness of the proposed approach and simulation system was demonstrated by a 7-DOF modular serial robot with pick and place demonstration.