Recursive evaluation of linearized dynamic robot models

A computational method for recursive evaluation of linearized dynamic robot models about a nominal trajectory is presented. The forward method evaluates the "sensitivity matrices" necessary to calculate the "forward" dynamics of the linearized model. The method has made efficient by using the fact that the derivatives of trigonometric functions need not be computed explicitly and that the partial derivatives of the homogeneous transformation matrices, may be obtained merely by row and column manipulations. The proposed scheme is general in nature and can be applied efficiently to manipulators having revolute and prismatic joints.