Modelling and Control of Robot Manipulators

Citation

Sciavicco, L. and Siciliano, B. (1998), "Modelling and Control of Robot Manipulators", Industrial Robot, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 73-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.1998.25.1.73.1

A ground up introduction to the essential mathematics of robotics. The authors set the context of their work in the field of industrial robotics, and endeavour to provide the fundamental analysis tools for the subject. Their approach is particularly systematic, the introduction going out of its way to explain the forthcoming motivation and structure of the book. The individual chapters are distinct as far as content is concerned and each may be used in isolation as a reference to the particular subject. However as a general background reference the book’s chapters follow logically, offering a fluid treatise of the subject making it as readable as reasonably possible for what might otherwise be a rather dry subject. Each chapter is prefaced by an abstract which both draws together the chapter’s contents, the keywords and phrases italicised for easy identification, and places the subject matter within the wider context of the rest of the book. This is particularly helpful for the inexpert but technically literate reader to orientate themselves in addition to providing a ready list of keywords for further investigation elsewhere. In addition, each chapter has its own set of full references for the reader to chase up if required, and a set of problems for the pedagogical reader. A solutions manual with a toolbox created for MATLAB and SIMULINK is available separately.

The subject matter itself presents few surprises, covering what is now a relatively mature topic. The introduction provides some small background to robotics, its application in an industrial setting and a general description of the approach to the modelling and analysis of manipulators. There is a modest bibliography of other resources on a similar theme. The subject matter in earnest starts with the direct kinematic problem which is addressed for all popular manipulator geometries, followed by the inverse kinematics problem which is completed for the majority. The following chapter covers the dynamics (both direct and inverse) of the moving manipulator. Building on these, the book moves on through motion control of the manipulator, including particular schemes for control and a comparison between them. This is augmented by the following chapter on interaction control, covering the manipulator’s relation to its environment in terms of impedance and compliance control. The last segment of the book gives a brief coverage of the makeup of a typical robot, covering its actuators and sensors and overall system architecture. For the reader whose mathematics may be a little rusty, the book is rounded off with three brief appendices covering linear algebra, mechanics and control theory.

This is not a large book, some 350 pages of A5, but nevertheless spans a lot of ground; the obvious corollary being that it must skimp on depth of coverage. Although the quantity and detail of the descriptions concerning actual physical robot systems is rather light, the book doesn’t set out to be an encyclopaedia. In summary, a handy reference.