A contribution to the analysis of flexible link systems

A numerical method of analysis for the inverse kinematics problem of ¯exible link systems is presented. The proposed method is based upon an iterative scheme, which consists of updating the system con®guration stepwise, by correcting the positioning error due to link deformations through rigid body motions of ®nite amplitude. The resulting nonlinear compensation scheme reduces to the solution of the inverse and direct kinematics problems of a sequence of equivalent rigid link systems. These solutions are symbolically derived by means of the GroÈ bner basis method. The convergence analysis of the proposed algorithm is developed. The applicability and the performance of the present method are veri®ed trough some numerical tests, highlighting its advantages and disadvantages in comparison with other methods found in the literature.