ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an introduction to the dynamics and control of robot manipulators. It derives the equations of motion for a general open-chain manipulator and, using the structure present in the dynamics, construct control laws for asymptotic tracking of a desired trajectory. The chapter makes explicit use of twists for representing the kinematics of the manipulator and explores the role that the kinematics play in the equations of motion. It describes the dynamics of a robot manipulator using a set of nonlinear, second-order, ordinary differential equations which depend on the kinematic and inertial properties of the robot. The chapter describes the dynamics of a robot manipulator using a set of nonlinear, second-order, ordinary differential equations which depend on the kinematic and inertial properties of the robot. It considers the position control problem for robot manipulators: given a desired trajectory, how should the joint torques be chosen so that the manipulator follows that trajectory.
