Abstract: It is a key problem to generate the inverse kinematics automatically for reconfigurable robots, because such robots may assume various configurations. Screw and the Product-of-exponential(POE) formulas are employed herein to model the kinematics of reconfigurable robots. The POE formula can be converted to canonical subproblems through decomposition and adjoint transformation. Three classes, twenty-eight types subproblems containing geometric or algebraic solutions are identified and solved, which can be reused in different configurations. A generalized, decomposable and reusable approach for close-form inverse kinematics of reconfigurable robots is developed based on POE and subproblems. An example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method.

Key words: Inverse kinematics Product of exponential formula, Reconfigurable robot, Subproblems