"I do not think at all that I am able to present here any procedure of investiga- tion that was not perceived long ago by all men of talent; and I do not promise at all that you can find here anything_ quite new of this kind. But I shall take pains to state in clear words the pules and ways of investigation which are followed by ahle men, who in most cases are not even conscious of foZlow- ing them. Although I am free from illusion that I shall fully succeed even in doing this, I still hope that the little that is present here may please some people and have some application afterwards. "...

This book presents the most recent research advances in the theory, design, control and application of robotic systems, which are intended for a variety of purposes such as manipulation, manufacturing, automation, surgery, locomotion and biomechanics. The issues addressed are fundamentally kinematic in nature, including synthesis, calibration, redundancy, force control, dexterity, inverse and forward kinematics, kinematic singularities, as well as over-constrained systems. Methods used include line geometry, quaternion algebra, screw algebra, and linear algebra. These methods are applied to...