Robot Arm Basics
Python, maths, frames, kinematics and arm types
Start here if you know nothing about robots. The Python and NumPy that robot code is written in, the angles, vectors and matrices an arm needs, frames and transforms, forward and inverse kinematics, and the common kinds of robot arm, with the six-joint arm in detail.
- 01
Python and NumPy
This doc teaches the small part of Python that the rest of this book uses. It is for a reader who knows nothing about robots and has written little or no Python. By the end you can hold an arm's joint angles in a list, write a…
- 02
Angles, Vectors and Matrices
A robot arm is a chain of joints that turn. Each joint reports one number: how far it has turned. Everything the arm does is worked out from those angles. This doc answers one question: what do you need to know about angles to…
- 03
Frames, Position and Transforms
A robot arm has to answer one question, over and over: where is my gripper right now?
- 04
Forward and Inverse Kinematics
This doc answers one question. If you know the angle of every joint on an arm, where is the gripper, and which way does it point? The answer is called forward kinematics, and it is the first thing every arm program works out.
- 05
Joints and Types of Arm
This document answers three questions about any robot arm. What kinds of joint can an arm have? When one joint moves, what happens to the rest of the arm? And how many joints does an arm need to do a job?