POSITION, ORIENTATION, ANDLOGATION OF ARIGID.GODY 95 vectors. Expanding Eq. (1.26), say along the first column of “Rg and applying Eqs. (1.19) and (1.20), we obtain 23 — tr ARg)A? + ARQ)A— 1 = 0, 27) where t(ARp) = ay) +32 + a5. We note that Eq. (1.27) contains 2 — 1 as.a factor. Solving Eq, (1.27) yields where 141) $422 +433 — | cos! e (1.28) defines the angle of rotation about the screw axis and where cos~!x is the arccosine function. The eigenvector corresponding to the eigenvalue of A = 1 gives the direction of the screw axis. Hence the direction of the screw axis is obtained by solving Eq, (1.24) for the ratio pe /B,/P: (b) Screw Axis Representation. In his section we seek a description of, the orientation of a rigid body in terms of a rotation about a screw axis. As shown in Fig. 1.2Sa, let the moving frame B be rotated an angle @ about an Po Ir, Ps | 2 7 F 5 y 1 x (@) Spherical displacement (b) Plane normal to the axis of rotation FIGURE 1.28, Vector diagram of aspherical displacement,36 wmTROOUCTION axis passing through the origin of the fixed frame A. The first position of a point P of the rigid body B is denoted by the vector r; = OP. The second position is denoted by r: = OP%, and the direction of rotation is denoted by a unit vector 8(5. sy. 5.). From the geometry of the figure, we obtain SP =n — (r]s)s, (1.29) SpPy = 12 — (r}s)s. (1.30) Figure 1.25b shows a plane that contains both points P; and PS and is normal to the axis of rotation. The point of intersection between the plane and the axis of rotation is taken as S,. Let NP L S,P). Then, using of the fact that |S, Pi| = |SpPf| ands x S,P; =s xr, we have SN =5,Pic8, (31, NPR =sxr50, (1.32) ‘where c0 is a shorthand notation for cos @ and s@ for sin 8. To derive a relation between rp and ry, we express 5, Pf as a sum of two vectors: S,Pf =5,N + NP;. (1.33) Substituting Eqs. (1.29) through (1.32) into (1.33), we obtain — (Fjs)s = [ri — (r}s)s]e0 + x 1458. (1.34) ‘Substituting r{s = r]s into Eq, (1.34) and rearranging yields Fy = 1108 +5 x ns6 + s(r}s)(1 — c6). (1.35) Equation (1.35) is known as Rodrigues’s formula for a spherical displace- ment of a rigid body. By considering r as ®p and r» as “p, Eq, (1.35) can be written in matrix form as Ap= “Ra ®p, (1.36) where the elements of the rotation matrix are given by: ayy = (53 — = 08) + 1, ay = 5,5)(1 — C8) — 5.58, 13 = S,5-(1 — 08) + 5,88, yy = 5y5,(1 — C8) + 5,58,POSITION ORIENTATION AND LOCATION OF ARIGDBODY 37 = (3-1-8) +1, 33 = 5y8-(1 = €8) ~ 5,88, S,(1 — 8) — sy86, 5y(1 — 08) + 5,88, DCU = 8) +1. (1.37) Equation (1.37) is called the screw axis representation of the orientation of a rigid body. This representation uses four parameters: three associated with the direction of the screw axis and one associated with the angle of rotation. However. only two of the three parameters associated with the direction of the screw axis are independent since they must satisfy the condition of a unit vector, s¥5 = 1. Given the screw axis and angle of rotation, we can compute the elements of the rotation matrix from Eq. (1.37). On the other hand, given a rotation ‘matrix, we can compute the screw axis and the angle of rotation. The angle of rotation is obtained by summing the diagonal elements of the rotation matrix. given by Eq, (1.37) 1a + @=cos (1.38) ‘The direction of the screw axis is obtained by taking the differences between each pair of two opposing off-diagonal elements 2 ay From Eqs. (1.38) and (1.39) it appears that there are two solutions of the screw axis, one being the negative of the other. In reality, these two solutions represent the same screw, since a ~9 rotation about the —s axis produces the same result as a +6 rotation about the s axis. (c) Euler Angle Representations. The direction cosine representation of an orientation contains nine parameters, and the screw axis representation requires four. Since rotation is a motion with 3 degrees of freedom, a set of three independent parameters are sufficient to describe the orientation of a rigid body in space. Several sets of three-parameter representations have been reported in the literature. Perhaps, the most commonly used sets are the Euler