An efficient method for computation of the manipulator inertia matrix

Abstract

An efficient method of computation of the manipulator inertia matrix is presented. Using spatial notations, the method leads to the definition of the composite rigid-body spatial inertia, which is a spatial representation of the notion of augmented body. The previously proposed methods, the physical interpretations leading to their derivation, and their redundancies are analyzed. The proposed method achieves a greater efficiency by eliminating the redundancy in the intrinsic equations as well as by a better choice of coordinate frame for their projection. In this case, removing the redundancy leads to greater efficiency of the computation in both serial and parallel senses.