A new approach to calculate the inverse kinematic functions whose domain of solution is not limited to the manipulator's workspace is introduced. Using this approach every point in the Cartesian space leads to a real solution when used as data for the inverse kinematic problem. The solution gives the minimum distance between the end-effector and the prescribed point in the Cartesian space for a given orientation of the end-effector. The proposed inverse kinematic functions are of great interest for tracking, approach, and catching operations where the object to be reached or tracked by the manipulator is inside or outside the robot's workspace.

Date Published: 11 March 1993
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 1964, Applications of Artificial Intelligence 1993: Machine Vision and Robotics, (11 March 1993); doi: 10.1117/12.141777

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1964:
Applications of Artificial Intelligence 1993: Machine Vision and Robotics
Kim L. Boyer; Louise Stark, Editor(s)