Dual quaternion-based inverse kinematics of the general spatial 7R mechanism

Abstract

The theory of dual quaternion and its use in serial mechanisms are described in this paper. A closed-form solution to the inverse kinematic analysis of the general 7-link 7R mechanism is presented. Dixon's resultant is used and the input—output equation is expressed in the form of a 6×6 determinant equated to zero, and the formulae to determine other angular displacements are expressed in the closed form. Numerical example confirms these theoretical results. The whole process is very simple and easy to program, which supplies a new method for the real use of the 7R mechanism.