This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the area of robot mechanisms, primarily considering industrial manipulators and humanoid arms. The book is intended for both teaching and self-study. Emphasis is given to the fundamentals of kinematic analysis and the design of robot mechanisms. The coverage of topics is untypical. The focus is on robot kinematics. The book creates a balance between theoretical and practical aspects in the development and application of robot mechanisms, and includes the latest achievements and trends in robot science and technology.

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the area of robot mechanisms, primarily considering industrial manipulators and humanoid arms. The book is intended for both teaching and self-study. Emphasis is given to the fundamentals of kinematic analysis and the design of robot mechanisms. The coverage of topics is untypical. The focus is on robot kinematics. The book creates a balance between theoretical and practical aspects in the development and application of robot mechanisms, and includes the latest achievements and trends in robot science and technology.

This book is focused on geometrical models of robot mechanisms. Rotation and orientation of an object are described by Rodrigues's formula, rotation matrix and quaternions. Pose and displacement of an object are mathematically dealt with homogenous transformation matrices. The geometrical robot model is based on Denavit Hartenberg parameters. Direct and inverse model of six degrees of freedom anthropomorphic industrial robots are also presented.

The word "robot" does not originate from a science or engineering vocabulary. It was rst used in the Czech drama R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) written by Karel Capek and was rst played in Prague in 1921 (the word itself was invented by his brother Josef). In the drama the "robot" is an arti cial human being which is a brilliant worker, deprived of all unnecessary qualities: feelings, creativity and capacity for feeling pain. In the prologue of the drama the following "de nition" of robots is given: Robots are not people (Roboti nejsou lide). They are mecha- cally more perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual capacity, but they have no soul. The creation of an engineer is technically more re ned than the product of nature. The textbook "Robotics" evolved through more than 10 years of teaching robotics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The way of presenting the rather demanding subject was successfully tested with several generations of undergraduatestudents."

The word "robot" does not originate from a science or engineering vocabulary. It was rst used in the Czech drama R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) written by Karel Capek and was rst played in Prague in 1921 (the word itself was invented by his brother Josef). In the drama the "robot" is an arti cial human being which is a brilliant worker, deprived of all unnecessary qualities: feelings, creativity and capacity for feeling pain. In the prologue of the drama the following "de nition" of robots is given: Robots are not people (Roboti nejsou lide). They are mecha- cally more perfect than we are, they have an astounding intellectual capacity, but they have no soul. The creation of an engineer is technically more re ned than the product of nature. The textbook "Robotics" evolved through more than 10 years of teaching robotics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The way of presenting the rather demanding subject was successfully tested with several generations of undergraduatestudents."