Aerospace Engineering Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2737
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Item Kinematic Determination of an Unmodeled Serial Manipulator by Means of an IMU(2013) Ciarleglio, Constance; Akin, David L; Aerospace Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Kinematic determination for an unmodeled manipulator is usually done through a-priori knowledge of the manipulator physical characteristics or external sensor information. The mathematics of the kinematic estimation, often based on Denavit- Hartenberg convention, are complex and have high computation requirements, in addition to being unique to the manipulator for which the method is developed. Analytical methods that can compute kinematics on-the fly have the potential to be highly beneficial in dynamic environments where different configurations and variable manipulator types are often required. This thesis derives a new screw theory based method of kinematic determination, using a single inertial measurement unit (IMU), for use with any serial, revolute manipulator. The method allows the expansion of reconfigurable manipulator design and simplifies the kinematic process for existing manipulators. A simulation is presented where the theory of the method is verified and characterized with error. The method is then implemented on an existing manipulator as a verification of functionality.