
In
robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist human ...
the common normal of two non-intersecting joint axes is a line perpendicular to both axes.
The common normal can be used to characterize robot arm links, by using the "common normal distance" and the angle between the link axes in a plane perpendicular to the common normal. When two consecutive joint axes are parallel, the common normal is not unique and an arbitrary common normal may be used, usually one that passes through the center of a coordinate system.
[''Foundations of Robotics: Analysis and Control'' by Tsuneo Yoshikawa 1990 page 33]
The common normal is widely used in the representation of the
frames of reference
In physics and astronomy, a frame of reference (or reference frame) is an abstract coordinate system whose origin, orientation, and scale are specified by a set of reference points― geometric points whose position is identified both mathem ...
for robot joints and links, and the selection of minimal representations with the
Denavit–Hartenberg parameters
In mechanical engineering, the Denavit–Hartenberg parameters (also called DH parameters) are the four parameters associated with a particular convention for attaching reference frames to the links of a spatial kinematic chain, or robot manip ...
.
See also
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Denavit–Hartenberg parameters
In mechanical engineering, the Denavit–Hartenberg parameters (also called DH parameters) are the four parameters associated with a particular convention for attaching reference frames to the links of a spatial kinematic chain, or robot manip ...
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Forward kinematics
In robot kinematics, forward kinematics refers to the use of the kinematic equations of a robot to compute the position of the end-effector from specified values for the joint parameters.
The kinematics equations of the robot are used in ro ...
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Robotic arm
A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by join ...
References
Robotics
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