2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Control Science and Systems Engineering

Analysis of Inverse Kinematics Method for Six Degrees of Freedom Manipulator

Based on MATLAB

Jiaxun Yu, Dazhang You, Jingsong Liu

School of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology
Wuhan, China
e-mail: 2457624105@qq.com; youdazhang@sina.com; 972579455@qq.com

Abstract—In this paper, the kinematics model of six-DOF to the structure of the manipulator and the connecting rod
manipulator is established by D-H parameter method, and the coordinate system.
joint space method is used to carry out trajectory planning.
Then, we use the Robotics Toolbox of Matlab to solve the the wrist joint 3 the wrist joint 1
inverse kinematics of each trajectory curve, the joint angle
curves draw on the time axis exist local mutation, and then
adopt the inverse kinematics method based on the fsolve the elbow joint
function, the resulting joint angle curves are both continuous
and smooth, which solves the mutation problem. Finally, the
Fourier function is used to fit the joint angle curves to the wrist joint 2
generate functions of them, from which the Actual trajectory
curve is obtained is close to the theoretical trajectory curve
and the coincidence degree is high. the shoulder joint

Keywords-D-H parameter method; manipulator; inverse the lumbar joint

kinematics; curve fitting
I. INTRODUCTION
The trajectory planning and simulation of the Figure 1. Robot 3D model.
manipulator is of great significance to the design of the
manipulator, and the multi-solution problem of the inverse
kinematics process in the manipulator trajectory planning
process is always complicated, the obtainment of which
needs a certain degree of screening. In this paper, we
analyze the results of inverse kinematics based on Robotics
Toolbox and fsolve function. It is found that the joint angle
curves of the former have local mutation problems, which do
not accord with the stability of the actual motion of the
manipulator. In the latter, by setting the reasonable initial
value, the obtained joint angle curves are smooth, which
accord with the movement requirement of the manipulator
and solve the defect of the former, thereby solving the Figure 2. Coordinate system of link.
problem of inverse kinematics. Finally, the trajectory
TABLE I. D-H PARAMETERS FOR THE JOYSTICK OF THE ROBOT
planning and simulation of the manipulator are realized.
II. KINEMATIC MODEL OF MANIPULATOR BASED ON D -
H PARAMETER METHOD
AˊEstablish D-H Coordinate System
As shown in Figure 1, the robot is a 6-DOF tandem
articular structure consisting of the lumbar joint (base), the
shoulder joint, the elbow joint, the wrist joint 1, the wrist
joint 2 and the wrist joint 3, which are all connected by
rotating secondary. The D-H parameter method is used to
establish the connecting rod coordinate system of the
manipulator. As shown in Figure 2, the parameters and joint
variables of each connecting rod can be obtained according

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BˊEstablish the Kinematics Equation III. INVERSE KINEMATICS SOLUTION ANALYSIS OF
According to the D-H parameters shown in Table 1 and ROBOT TRAJECTORY PLANNING
the homogeneous transformation matrix formula, the AˊAnalysis of Trajectory Planning
homogeneous transformation matrix between the two
links of the manipulator can be obtained by the literature [1], Due to the structural characteristics of the
which are six-degree-of-freedom manipulator, the former three joints
0 0 determine the spatial position of the manipulator, and the
0 − 0 latter three joints determine the attitude matrix of the
= manipulator. Therefore, in the case of a given spatial
0 1 0
0 0 0 1 position, the attitude matrix can be any matrix as needed.
− 0 Therefore, in the solution, we can give a given attitude
0 matrix, then keep the attitude of the end of the manipulator
= unchanged from beginning to end, which is
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
0
0 −
=
0 1 0 0
0 0 0 1 The trajectory curve at the end of the manipulator is
0 − 0 divided into 300 segments by time, then solve the inverse
0 0 kinematics of the two ends of each curve to obtain the joint
=
0 −1 0 angle of each joint at the corresponding time. Through the
0 0 0 1 interpolation process to draw the curves of joint angles that
0 0 vary with time, analyze whether the curves are smooth and
0 − 0 continuous, and whether the ranges are reasonable. In the
=
0 1 0 0 case where the curves conform to the stability of the
0 0 0 1 manipulator's actual movement, they will be fitted to obtain
0 − 0
the corresponding function of joint angle, then the function
0 0
= (1) of corresponding joint velocity and acceleration can be
0 −1 0 0
obtained by derivation.
0 0 0 1
Solving the motion equation of the manipulator [1]: In order to calculate the above analysis, we take =
2, = 3, = 3, = 2. The space motion trajectory of
the manipulator is set as a helix, and the curve is

(2)
T is the homogeneous transformation matrix of the
whole manipulator, , , , , , , , , , , ,
are the functions of , , , , , . Among them,
( , , )is the position coordinates of the center of the
manipulator in the space, and the attitude of the end of the
manipulator in the space is determined by the matrix R[1]:
(3)
The matrix R is the total transformation between the
robot base coordinate system and the center coordinate
system of the end of the manipulator.
The above formulas (1) and (2) constitute the
kinematics equation of the manipulator, which is the
mathematical basis for the kinematics analysis of the
manipulator.
(4)
BˊInverse Kinematics Solution Based on Robotics Toolbox
(4)
Robotics Toolbox of Matlab has a corresponding
function named kine about inverse kinematics solution,
according to the known homogeneous transformation
matrix of the starting and the end, by which the joint angle
corresponding to the two points can be solved.
Theoretically the inverse kinematics will appear
multi-solution problem, the function will automatically give
a set of appropriate solution.
Solving each section of the curve by this function, the
corresponding joint angle can be obtained. After the
interpolation process, the curves of joint angle of the joint 2,
joint 3 and joint 4 is shown in Figure 3.


 (5)
By solving the nonlinear equations, the multi - group
solutions can be obtained and find the optimal solution.
Matlab has a function of solving the nonlinear
equations named fsolve. Each curve is followed by the
solution of the nonlinear equations shown in formula (5).
The function solving nonlinear equation is based on the
least squares method, by searching for a suitable solution
within the nearest range from a given initial value. To
Figure 3. The curves of joint angles about the joint 2, joint 3 and joint 4. obtain smooth joint angle curves, the joint angle value
obtained from the end of the previous curve is taken as the
As can be seen from the curves drawn in Figure 3, the
initial value of the solution of the next curve of the
curves have mutation problems on some points at some
nonlinear system, so that the end joint angle of the next
time, resulting in unsmooth curves, which does not
curve is the nearest solution to the end joint angle of the
correspond to the stability of the manipulator's motion. It is
previous curve, which solves the mutation problem of the
found that the inverse kinematic function only guarantees
curve. Finally, the joint angle values of each curve are
the rationality of the end points in solving the curves of
integrated together to obtain the whole curves of joint
each section, but can’t meet the requirements on the
angles that vary with time, as shown in Figure 4:
convergence between each curve. The inverse kinematics
solution itself is a multi-solution problem, a spatial position
can correspond to multiple sets of joint angle. This function
can not establish the connection between the two curves
when giving the appropriate solution of the single position,
resulting in the joint angle change is not smooth, so there
are some defects.
CˊInverse Kinematics Solution Based on fsolve Function
Because of the lack of smoothness of the joint angle
obtained by the inverse motion solution function of the
Robotics Toolbox, it needs to be further improved in the
method of screening the appropriate solution. As is known
from the formula (2) that
are the functions about
in the matrix T. there can establish 12 groups of
nonlinear equations, and the equations are as follows:

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 To test the accuracy of the obtained joint angle
function, the formula (6) is substituted into the formula (5)
to obtain the function of , and about time, and the
actual motion trajectory of the manipulator is obtained. The
theoretical trajectory curve and the actual trajectory curve
are drawn in the same coordinate system, as shown in
Figure 5.

Figure 5. Theoretical trajectory curve and actual trajectory curve.

It can be seen from Figure 5 that the coincidence

degree between the actual trajectory and the theoretical
trajectory is very high, which indicates the feasibility of
using fitting function to reflect the curves joint angle and
the accuracy of inverse kinematics method based on fsolve
function is verified in the meanwhile.

Figure 4. The curves of angle joint1 to joint6 vary with time.

As is shown Figure 4, each curve of joint angle is a

continuous smooth curve, and the joint angle is within a
reasonable angle range, in line with the stability
requirements of the manipulator. By comparing with Figure
3, the inverse kinematics solution based on fsolve function
is more in line with the actual situation than based on
Robotics Toolbox, which is more suitable for the movement
of the manipulator trajectory planning.
Fourier function fitting the curves shown in Figure 5,
the functions of the joint angle are obtained:

= 3.152 − 4.178 (0.0015 ) + 17.86 (0.0015 )

+1.026 (0.003 ) − 2.073 (0.003 )
= 0.5995 − 0.0125 (0.003 ) + 0.9914 (0.003 )
−0.0333 (0.006 ) − 0.0969 (0.006 ) Figure 6. Simulation results of spiral trajectory.
= −1.169 − 0.239 (0.0037 ) − 0.418 (0.0037 )
−0.003 (0.0074 ) + 0.0266 (0.0074 ) It can be seen from Figure 6, the simulation of the
= 4.717 − 2.751 (0.012 ) − 0.6897 (0.012 )
−0.3615 (0.024 ) + 0.5971 (0.024 )
helix is basically no deviation, and the track smooth
= 1.812 − 0.0372 (0.011 ) − 0.5118 (0.011 ) continuous. In the process of simulation movement, the
−0.1731 (0.022 ) + 0.5997 (0.022 ) robot runs steadily, and the link does not appear the
= −1.371 + 0.4376 (0.0139 ) − 0.453 (0.0139 ) situation of movement dislocation, indicating the
+0.2708 (0.0278 ) + 0.1438 sin(0.0278 ) (6) correctness of the calculation method. Therefore, Under the

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condition of setting the appropriate initial value, the inverse
kinematics method based on the fsolve function has good
accuracy.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we study the inverse kinematics problem
of the six-degree-of-freedom manipulator in the trajectory
planning. By comparing the two inverse kinematics
methods, it is shown that the fsolve function of Matlab can
solve the multi-solution problem of the inverse kinematics
process of manipulator well under the condition of setting
the appropriate initial value. The results are in line with the
Stability requirements of the actual motion of the
manipulator. Finally, the accuracy of the method is verified
by the curve fitting and the motion simulation. The fitting
effect and the simulation result are pretty good.
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