Closed-Form Solution of Inverse Kinematics for a Minimally Invasive Surgical Robot Slave Manipulator Similar to Da Vinci Robot System

Abstract

Closed-form solution inverse kinematics has a unique advantage in robot control; it is quite difficult to be obtained through traditional methods as no effective analytic method has been identified so far, when the robot's joint configuration does not conform to the “Pieper Criterion.” In this paper, a new modeling method named extended Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) method was presented for solving this problem. And the conditions of robots' configuration that conform to the method have been given for different joints combinations. The precise closed-form solution to a minimally invasive surgical robot slave manipulator was obtained through this new method. The correctness of the new method was verified through simulation analyses; this study enriched robot kinematic modeling and the closed-form solution to inverse kinematics of Da Vinci surgical robot, and will help to obtain a fast, accurate, and general method of closed-form solution for the same kind of robots and provide the precondition for robot control and trajectory planning.