This volume provides an account of developments in computational kinematics. Included are both numerical computations and symbolic manipulations. The volume reports on trends and progress in a broad class of problems, and the information is collated into six parts describing the main themes: (i) kinematic algorithms, whereby general kinematic problems are discussed in light of their solution algorithms; (ii) redundant manipulators; (iii) kinematic and dynamic control, in which the link between kinematics and the disciplines of dynamics and control is highlighted; (iv) parallel manipulators; (v) motion planning, touching on computational geometry; and (vi) kinematics of mechanisms, describing the closed kinematic chains. The volume contains a representative sample of current techniques available for kinematics problems. It should be of interest to researchers, graduate students and practising engineers engaged in work relating to kinematics, robotics, machine design and computer science.
