Dynamics of Serial Manipulators

Professor Nicola Ferrier

ME Room 2246, 265-8793
ferrier@engr.wisc.edu

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Dynamic Modeling
For manipulator arms:
Relate forces/torques at joints to the motion
of manipulator + load
External forces usually only considered at the
end-effector
Gravity (lift arms) is a major consideration

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Dynamic Modeling
Need to derive the equations of motion
Relate forces/torque to motion

Must consider distribution of mass

Need to model external forces

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Manipulator Link Mass

Consider link as a system of particles
Each particle has mass, dm
Position of each particle can be expressed
using forward kinematics

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Manipulator Link Mass

The density at a position x is (x),
usually is assumed constant

The mass of a body is given by

where
is the set of material points
that comprise the body

The center of mass is

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Inertia

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Equations of Motion
Newton-Euler approach
P is absolute linear momentum
F is resultant external force
Mo is resultant external moment wrt point o
Ho is moment of momentum wrt point o

Lagrangian (energy methods)

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Equations of Motion
Lagrangian using generalized coordinates:
The equations of motion for a mechanical
system with generalized coordinates are:

External force vector

i is the external force acting on the ith general
coordinate

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Equations of Motion
Lagrangian Dynamics, continued

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Equations of Motions
Robotics texts will use either method to
derive equations of motion
In ME 739: Advanced Robotics and
Automation we use a Lagrangian approach
using computational tools from kinematics
to derive the equations of motion

For simple robots (planar two link arm),

Newton-Euler approach is straight
forward

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Manipulator Dynamics
Isolate each link
Neighboring links apply external forces and
torques
Mass of neighboring links
External force inherited from contact between tip
and an object
DAlembert force (if neighboring link is
accelerating)

Actuator applies either pure torque or pure

force (by DH convention along the z-axis)

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Notation

The following are w.r.t. reference frame R:

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Force on Isolated Link

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Torque on Isolated Link

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Force-torque balance on manipulator

Applied by
actuators in
z direction

ME 439

external

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Newtons Law
A net force acting on body produces a
rate of change of momentum in
accordance with Newtons Law

The time rate of change of the total

angular momentum of a body about the
origin of an inertial reference frame is
equal to the torque acting on the body

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Force/Torque on link n

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Newtons Law

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Newton-Euler Algorithm

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Newton-Euler Algorithm
1. Compute the inertia tensors,
2. Working from the base to the endeffector, calculate the positions,
velocities, and accelerations of the
centroids of the manipulator links with
respect to the link coordinates
(kinematics)
3. Working from the end-effector to the
base of the robot, recursively calculate
the forces and torques at the actuators
with respect to link coordinates
ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Change of coordinates for

force/torque

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Recursive Newton-Euler
Algorithm

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Two-link manipulator

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Two link planar arm

DH table for two link arm

L2

L1
x0

Z0 1

x1
2

Z1

x2

Z2

Link

Var

L1

L2

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Forward Kinematics: planar 2-link arm

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Forward Kinematics: planar 2-link manipulator

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Forward Kinematics: planar 2-link manipulator

w.r.t. base
frame {0}

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Forward Kinematics: planar 2-link manipulator

position vector from origin of
frame 0 to c.o.m. of link 1
expressed in frame 0
position vector from origin
of frame 1 to c.o.m. of link 2
expressed in frame 0
position vector from origin of
frame 0 to origin of frame 1
expressed in frame 0
position vector from origin
of frame 1 to origin of frame
2 expressed in frame 0

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Forward Kinematics: planar 2-link manipulator

w.r.t. base frame {0}

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Point Mass model for two link planar arm

DH table for two link arm

m1

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

m2

Dynamic Model of Two Link Arm

w/point mass

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

General Form

Joint
torques

Inertia
(mass)

Coriolis &
centripetal
terms

Joint
accelerations

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Gravity
terms

General Form: No motion

No motion so

Joint torques
required to hold
manipulator in a
static position (i.e.
counter
gravitational forces)

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Gravity terms

Independent Joint Control revisited

Called Computed Torque Feedforward
in text
Use dynamic model + setpoints (desired
position, velocity and acceleration from
kinematics/trajectory planning) as a
feedforward term

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Manipulator motion from input torques

Integrate to get

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Dynamic Model of Two Link Arm

w/point mass

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Dynamics of 2-link point mass

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Dynamics in block diagram of 2-link (point mass)

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier

Dynamics of 2-link slender rod

ME 439

Professor N. J. Ferrier