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xiv Preface
simple and elegant geometric interpretation that lies at the heart of what they
are calculating.
The breakthrough that makes the techniques of classical screw theory ac-
cessible to a more general audience arrived in the early 1980’s, when Roger
Brockett showed how to mathematically describe kinematic chains in terms of
the Lie group structure of the rigid-body motions [20]. This discovery allowed
one, among other things, to re-invent screw theory simply by appealing to basic
linear algebra and linear differential equations. With this “modern screw the-
ory” the powerful tools of modern differential geometry can be brought to bear
on a wide-ranging collection of robotics problems, some of which we explore
here, others of which are covered in the excellent but more advanced graduate
textbook by Murray, Li and Sastry [122].
As the title indicates, this book covers what we feel to be the fundamentals
of robot mechanics, together with the basics of planning and control. A thor-
ough treatment of all the chapters would likely take two semesters, particularly
when coupled with programming assignments or experiments with robots. The
contents of Chapters 2-6 constitute the minimum essentials, and these topics
should probably be covered in sequence.
The instructor can then selectively choose content from the remaining chap-
ters. At Seoul National University, the undergraduate course M2794.0027 Intro-
duction to Robotics covers, in one semester, Chapters 2-7 and parts of Chapters
10, 11, and 12. At Northwestern, ME 449 Robotic Manipulation covers, in an 11-
week quarter, Chapters 2-6 and 8, then touches on different topics in Chapters
9-13 depending on the interests of the students and instructor. A course focus-
ing on the kinematics of robot arms and wheeled vehicles could cover chapters
2-7 and 13, while a course on kinematics and motion planning could addition-
ally include Chapters 9 and 10. A course on the mechanics of manipulation
would cover Chapters 2-6, 8, and 12, while a course on robot control would
cover Chapters 2-6, 8, 9, and 11. If the instructor prefers to avoid dynamics
(Chapter 8), the basics of robot control (Chapters 11 and 13) can be covered by
assuming control of velocity at each actuator, not forces and torques. A course
focusing only on motion planning could cover Chapters 2 and 3, Chapter 10 in
depth (possibly supplemented by research papers or other references cited in
that chapter), and Chapter 13.
To help the instructor choose which topics to teach and to help the student
keep track of what she has learned, we have included a summary at the end of
each chapter and a summary of important notation and formulas used through-
out the book (Appendix A). For those whose primary interest in this text is
as an introductory reference, we have attempted to provide a reasonably com-
prehensive, though by no means exhaustive, set of references and bibliographic
May 2017 preprint of Modern Robotics, Lynch and Park, Cambridge U. Press, 2017. http://modernrobotics.org