The purpose of this monograph is to present computationally efficient algorithms for solving basic problems in robot manipulator dynamics. In par ticular, the following problems of rigid-link open-chain manipulator dynam ics are considered: i) computation of inverse dynamics, ii) computation of forward dynamics, and iii) generation of linearized dynamic models. Com putationally efficient solutions of these problems are prerequisites for real time robot applications and simulations. Cartesian tensor analysis is the mathematical foundation on which the above mentioned computational algorithms...

Control of Flexible-link Manipulators Using Neural Networks addresses the difficulties that arise in controlling the end-point of a manipulator that has a significant amount of structural flexibility in its links. The non-minimum phase characteristic, coupling effects, nonlinearities, parameter variations and unmodeled dynamics in such a manipulator all contribute to these difficulties. Control strategies that ignore these uncertainties and nonlinearities generally fail to provide satisfactory closed-loop performance. This monograph develops and experimentally evaluates several...