Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book starts with a review of the Lagrangian equations of motion for a system of rigid bodies. It contains the description of manipulator kinematics for a single robot. The chapter proves that the kinematics of open-link manipulators can be represented as a product of exponentials. It presents a geometric view to understanding translational and rotational motion of a rigid body. The chapter contains an introduction to some methods of motion planning for systems with nonholonomic constraints. It discusses how to construct force-closure grasps using an appropriate positioning of the fingers on the surface of the object. The chapter expands the horizons beyond multifingered robot hands and gives yet other examples of nonholonomic behavior in robotic systems arising from rolling: car parking, mobile robots, space robots, and a hopping robot in the flight phase.