
6.6 RRTR Robot Arm 257
6.6 RRTR Robot Arm
Figure 6.10 is a schematic representation of a robot (Kane and Levinson, 1983), with
four links 1, 2, 3, and 4. The mass center of the link i is designated C
i
, i = 1,2,3,4.
The dimensions AC
2
= L
1
, AC
1
= L
2
and C
3
C
4
= L
3
are shown in the figure. Link 1
rotates in a “fixed” Newtonian reference frame (0) about a vertical axis fixed in both
(0) and 1. The reference frame (0), RF0, has the unit vectors [ı
0
, j
0
, k
0
] as shown
in Fig. 6.10. The reference frame (1), RF1, of unit vectors [ı
1
, j
1
, k
1
] is attached to
link 1. The vertical unit vectors j
0
and j
1
are fixed in both (0) and 1.
The first generalized coordinate q
1
denotes the radian measure of the angle be-
tween the axes of (0) and (1). Link 1 supports link 2, and link 2 rotates relative to 1
about a horizontal axis fixed in both 1 and 2. The reference frame (2), RF2, of unit
vectors [ı
2
, j
2
, k
2
] is fixed in 2. The horizontal unit vectors ı
1
and ı
2
are fixed in both
1 and 2. The mass center C
2
is a point fixed in both 1 and 2.
The second generalized coordinate q
2
denotes the radian measure of the angle
between the axes of (1) and (2). The link 2 supports link 3, and link 3 has a transla-
tional motion relative to 2.
The generalized coordinate q
4
is the distance between the mass centers, C
2
and
C
3
, of 2 and 3, respectively. The link 3 supports link 4, and link 4 rotates relative to
3 about an axis fixed in both 3 and 4. The reference frame (4), RF4, of unit vectors
[ı
4
, j
4
, k
4
] is fixed in 4. The unit vectors j
2
and j
4
are fixed in both 3 and 4. The mass
center C
4
is a point fixed in both 3 and 4.
The generalized coordinate q
3
is the radian measure of the rotation angle between
3 and 4. The reference frame (4), [ı
4
, j
4
, k
4
] is fixed in 4 in such a way that ı
0
=
ı
4
, j
0
= j
4
, k
4
= k
0
when q
1
= q
2
= q
3
= 0.
The generalized speeds, u
1
, u
2
, u
3
, u
4
, are associated with the motion of a system,
and can be introduced as
u
1
= ω
40
·ı
4
,
u
2
= ω
40
·j
4
,
u
3
= ω
40
·k
4
,
u
4
= ˙q
4
, (6.45)
where
ω
40
denotes the angular velocity of 4 in (0). One may verify that
ω
40
=(˙q
1
s
2
s
3
+ ˙q
2
c
3
)ı
4
+(˙q
1
c
2
+ ˙q
3
)j
4
+(−˙q
1
s
2
c
3
+ ˙q
2
s
3
)k
4
, (6.46)
where s
i
and c
i
denote sinq
i
and cosq
i
, i = 1, 2, 3, respectively. Substitution into
Eq. 6.45 then yields
u
1
= ˙q
1
s
2
s
3
+ ˙q
2
c
3
,
u
2
= ˙q
1
c
2
+ ˙q
3
,
u
3
= −˙q
1
s
2
c
3
+ ˙q
2
s
3
,
u
4
= ˙q
4
. (6.47)