DYNAMAN: A tool for manipulator design and analysis

Abstract

This report describes a method to formulate the dynamic equations of a robot manipulator with N links and with either revolute or prismatic joints using a Newton-Euler formulation. A general-purpose tool for analysis and design of robot manipulators and related control problems is being developed in the form of a software package DYNAMAN using this method. At present, DYNAMAN has the capability to do the following: (1) generate dynamic models of a robot manipulator given the number of links N and the types (revolute/prismatic) of the manipulator joints; (2) generate automatically upon request the requisite FORTRAN code for numerical simulation of the dynamic model generated; (3) generate symbolically the manipulator Jacobian. The package is written in MACSYMA as implemented for operation under the Berkeley 4.2BSD Unix operating system for the Vax. This report describes in brief some of the main features of the DYNAMAN package. Detailed documentation is provided within the body of the program.