Computational Kinematics

This volume provides a state of the art 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 logically 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; (vi) kinematics of mechanisms describing the closed kinematic chains. The volume contains a representative sample of the most modern techniques available for kinematics problems, including some novel techniques described for the first time in a book. It will be of interest to researchers, graduate students and practising engineers engaged in work relating to kinematics, robotics, machine design and computer science.