A new approach to generate the DH parameters of modular robots

Abstract

Modular robots have kinematic characteristics that are notably different from those of general robot systems and allow the adjustment of its kinematic behavior. The ability to change its kinematic configuration according to the task is one of the main advantages for the practical application of modular robots. To obtain an optimal kinematic configuration among modules, all the attachment combinations between them should be considered. However, it is difficult to obtain the Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters for the modular components given the amount of possible combinations. This paper introduces an approach to define the DH parameters of a modular robot by using three vectors. From this approach, the DH parameters of each module are obtained, and the sequential summation of different module parameters results in the complete DH parameter set for a given configuration. Then, all attachment combinations can be considered to find, for instance, an optimal kinematic solution. We present an example to illustrate and validate our approach.