Towards a differential topological classification of robot manipulators

Abstract

The paper is concerned with a classification of models of rigid manipulators via state feedback and local diffeomorphisms of the state and output spaces. Using some methods of singularity theory, finite lists of normal forms are provided for generic manipulators with the number of degrees of freedom n ≥2, n ≠8. If n = 8, the classification is proved to be infinite.