M.S.E.E., Purdue University, May 1991
Major Professor: Anthony A. Maciejewski
Redundant manipulators, those with more degrees of freedom than required for the task at hand, can be useful when a high level of dexterity and flexibility in the specification of manipulator motion is desired. The redundant manipulator's extra degrees of freedom, however, make its control more difficult. This can prevent effective use of the manipulator in a dynamic environment where fast cycle times are required. This work presents an algorithm, based on a parallel calculation of the Singular Value Decomposition, which allows the kinematic equations of motion for a redundant manipulator to be solved in real time.