UNIVERSITY OF BAGHDAD

AL-KHWARIZMI ENGINEERING COLLEGE

MECHATRONICS ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

“Identifying Robot singularity configurations by using Jacobian matrix”

STUDENT NAME: Noor Jamal

OBJECTIVES:
The existence of singular positions inside the robot workspace is an inherent problem for task
planning and robot control. At manipulator configurations near singular positions, very large
joint motions are required to produce relatively small end-effector displacements. In the limit,
when a singularity is encountered, the required joint motions become unbounded and the
manipulator loses at least one degree of freedom. So the using the Jacobian are presented to
identify and analyze the robot singularities in order to avoid them.

DESCRIPTION:
Kinematic singularity can be defined as the robot loss of one or more degree of freedom (DOF),
mathematically; at which Jacobian matrix is a rank decreasing. Singularity represents
configurations from which certain direction of motion may be unattainable, infinite solutions to
the inverse kinematics may exist and an end effector small velocity in operational space may
cause a large joint velocity Since the forward and inverse kinematics give the relationship
between the work space and joint space, the differential of kinematics gives the relationship
between the joints velocities and the corresponding end effector linear and angular velocities;
this mapping is described by a matrix termed Jacobian. Jacobian is one of the most important
tool for manipulator characterization. It is useful for finding singularities, determining inverse
algorithm, related the joint torques and applied forces, deriving equations of motion and
designing operational control schemes.To find the singularity of manipulator is of great interest
for the following reason:

 singularity represent configuration at which mobility of the structure is reduced .

 When the structure is at singularity, infinite solutions to the inverse kinematics problem
may exist.

 In the nieghbourhood of a singularity, small velocities in the opertional space may cause
large velocities in the joint space.

Singularity can be classified into:

 boindary singularity that occur when the maniplutor is either outstrectud or retracted.

 Internal singularities that occur inside the reachable workspace and are generally caused
by the alignment of two or more axes motion, or else by the attainment of particular end-
effector configuration.
METHOD

SINGULARITY DECOUPLING
Because it is not easy to compute the internal sigularities via jacobian, the singularity
decoupling term presented. For manipulators having a spherical wrist, the sigularity decoupling
split the problem of singularity into two separate problems: computation of arm and wrist
singularities.

 WRIST SINGULARITIES:
The most frequently-encountered singularity in vertically-articulated robot arms with inline
wrists is the wrist singularity( we assume it is six axis robot). It occurs when the axes of joints 4
and 6 become coincident. In most robots, this condition corresponds to θ5 = 0.

 ARM SINGULARITIES:
The arm singularities divided into:

 Elbow singularity : It is type of singularity in vertically articulated robot arms with inline
wrists is the elbow singularity(we assume it is six axis robot). It occurs when the wrist center
(the point where the axes of joints 4, 5 and 6 intersect) lies on the plane passing through the
axes of joints 2 and 3. We can say that, in an elbow singularity, the arm is fully stretched. (Due
to mechanical interferences, most robot arms cannot be fully folded, which would be the other
elbow singularity.) An elbow singularity is determined only by the position of joint 3.

 Shoulder singularity: The last type of singularity in vertically-articulated robot arms with
inline wrists is the shoulder singularity(we assume it is six axis robot). It occurs when the center
of the robot wrist lies in the plane passing through the axes of joints 1 and 2 (or through the axis
of joint 1 and parallel to the axis of joint 2).

EQUATIONS:
 Jacobian:

The Jacobian is a 6 × n matrix mapping the R n joint velocity space to the R6 operational velocity
space:

x'= J(q) q' dx =J(q) dq .....(1)

• So, this can be interpreted as a relationship between infinitesimal displacements in and R n

and R6.

• In general, rank(J(q)) = min (6, n).

• On the other hand, since the elements of J are functions of the joints, some robot
configurations exist such that the Jacobian loses rank.

• These configurations are denoted as kinematic singularities.

In these configurations, there are “directions” (vectors ) in R 6 without any correspondent

“direction” (q' ) in Rn : these directions cannot be actuated and the robot loses motion
capabilities

 Singularity Decoupling :

Cosider the case n = 6 ; the Jacobian can be partitioned into (3 x 3) blocks as follow if If J ∈ R 6 x
n
then:

J=[ J11 J12;

J21 J22] ......(2)

Where, since the outer three joints are all revolute, the xpressions of two right blocks are
respectively:

J12=[z3 x(p-p3) z4 x(p-p4) z5 x(p-p5)] .......(3)

J22 =[ z3 z4 z5].......(4)

As singularities are typical of the mechanical structure and do not depend on the frames chosen
to describe kinematics, it is convenient to choose the origin of the end-effector frame at the
intersection of the wrist axes. The choice p= pw leads to:

J12=[0 0 0]....(5)

Since allvectors pw-pi are parallel to the unit vector zi, for i=3,4,5, no matter how frames 3,4,5
are chosen according to DH convenient. In view of the choice, the overall Jacobian becomes a
block lower-traingular matrix . SO :

det J=det(J11) det(J22)......(6)

spherical wrist at singularity

In tern, a true singularity decoupling has been achived, the condition : det (J11)=0, leads to
determining the arm sigularities , the condition: det(J22)=0, leads to determining of wrist
singularities.

 Wrist singualrity:

z3 parallel to z5 & V5=0 V5=pi.

Rotations of equal magnitude about opposite directions on V4 and V6 do not produce any
rotation at the end-effector.

 Arm singularities:
 anthropomorphic arm

anthropomorphic arm at singularity

From Jacobian for the linear velocity we conclude Its determinant is : (Jp) = -a2a3s3 (a2c2 + a3
c23).

The determinant dose not depend on the first joint variable . For a2, a3 ≠ 0, the det vanishes if
s3 = 0 and\or (a2c2 + a3 c23)=0.

 Elbow singularity:

The first situation occurs whenever V3=0 & V3= π, meaning that elbow is outstreched in figure
above or retracted, and is termed elbow singularity. Notice that this type of singularity is
conceptually equivalent to the singularity found for the two-link planar arm.

 Shoulder singularity:

By recalling direct kinematics equation :

it can be observed that the second situation occurs when the wrist point lies on axis z0 in figure
below , it is thus characterizied by: px =py =0 , and is termed shoulder singularity.

anthropomorphic arm at a shoulder singularity

Notice that the whole axis z0 describes a continuum of singularity configurations, a rotation of
V1 dose not cause any translation of the wrist position, and then the kinematics equation
admits infinite soultion, moreover, motions starting from the singular configuration that take
the wrist along the z1 direction are nit allowed.

EXAMPLE:
Elbow Manipulator Singularities:

Consider the three-link articulated manipulator with coordinate frames attached as shown in
Figure below to show that:

J11 = [−a2s1c2 − a3s1c23 −a2s2c1 − a3s23c1 −a3c1s23;

a2c1c2 + a3c1c23 −a2s1s2 − a3s1s23 −a3s1s23;

0 a2c2 + a3c23 a3c23]

and that the determinant of J11 is:

det J11 = a2a3s3(a2c2 + a3c23)

We see from Equation above that the elbow manipulator is in a singular configuration
whenever:

s3 = 0, that is, θ3 = 0 or π
and whenever:

a2c2 + a3c23 = 0

Elbow singularities of the elbow manipulator.

The situation of Equation () is shown in Figure above and arises when the elbow is fully
extended or fully retracted as shown. The second situation of Equation () is shown in Figure
below. This configuration occurs when:

Singularity of the elbow manipulator with no offsets

the wrist center intersects the axis of the base rotation, there are infinitely many singular
configurations and infinitely many solutions to the inverse position kinematics when the wrist
center is along this axis. For an elbow manipulator with an offset, as shown in Figure below the
wrist center cannot intersect z0, which corroborates our earlier statement that points reachable
at singular configurations may not be reachable under arbitrarily small perturbations of the
manipulator parameters, in this case an offset in either the elbow or the shoulder.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION:
For some time known that singularities play a significant role in the design and control of robot
manipulators. Singularities of the kinematic mapping, which determines the position of the
end–effector in terms of the manipu-lator's joint variables, may impede control algorithms, lead
to large joint velocities, forces and torques and reduce instantaneous mobility. However they
can also en-able fine control, and the singularities exhibited by trajectories of the points in the
end–effector can be used to mechanical advantage.

In order to anoid that phenomena there are many sloution and tips like Learn the Basics of
Robot Singularities, that is mean knowing what singulariy mean, Identify the Type of
Singularity , whither it is wrist or arm singularity, Use the Right Programming Solution like using
a program such RoboDK which has autmatic singularity detection and Only Restrict What Must
Be Restricted.