Automatic Generation of Kinematics and Dynamics Model Descriptions for Modular Reconfigurable Robot Manipulators

We propose a unified approach for automatically generating multiple robot-model descriptions for modular robot manipulators. Modular robots need models for kinematics and dynamics to deploy motion control schemes with high performance as it is possible for their fixed structure counterparts. Additionally, these models are also necessary for enabling the optimization of their assembly to optimally meet task and environmental constraints. Manual derivation of models for every different assembly is impractical as the number of possible arrangements can be large. We propose a systematic approach for characterizing single modules and for automatically generating the following widely adopted robot model descriptions for kinematics and dynamics: standard and modified Denavit-Hartenberg, product of exponentials formulation, and the unified robot description format. We numerically verify our approach also considering experimental data from a real modular robot manipulator.