The Singular Planes of the Articulated Arm Subassembly

Abstract

A generic representation of arm-subassembly singularities is possible through the use of singular planes. These singular planes are the loci of instantaneously singular points on the terminal link. The singular planes have been revealed previously, albeit through some relatively sophisticated methods. The purpose of this paper is to redevelop these singular planes for the articulated arm-subassembly using simple kinematic concepts which should be well-known to the general robotics community, entry-level graduate students and upper level undergraduates. The intention is to make the concept of singular planes better understood and more useful as a tool for learning about and understanding the kinematic singularities of industrial manipulators.