How Do Robots Control Their Bodies?

• Big idea: Robots describe their bodies as kinematic trees and use kinematics solvers to translate between joint angles and body coordinates.
• Underlying technologies:
• Kinematic description files, forward and inverse kinematics solver
• Learning goal: Students will understand:
• Students will understand kinematic descriptions expressed as trees of joints and links
• How kinematics solvers use this representation when translating between world coordinates and joint coordinates.
• Skill goals: Students will be able to:
• Students will be able to construct and visualize kinematic descriptions using Tekkotsu’s DH Wizard tools
• Invoke kinematics solvers via the Lookout or Grasper to produce desired robot motions