Forward Kinematics Algorithm in Dual Quaternion Space Based on Denavit-Hartenberg Convention

Abstract

Forward kinematics is fundamental to robot design, control, and simulation. Different forward kinematics algorithms have been developed to deal with the complex geometry of a robot. This paper presents a robot forward kinematics algorithm in dual quaternion space. The presented method uses Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) convention for uniform definition of successive rotational and translational transformations in joints along the robot's kinematic chain. This research aims to utilize the advantages of dual quaternions and DH convection for forward kinematics computation and make the algorithm, which is compact, intuitive, numerically robust, and computationally efficient as it uses the minimal number of parameters required for the computation, suitable for implementation in ROS and similar software. The algorithm is verified on the 6DoF industrial robot RL15, with the symbolic equations and numerical simulation presented.