The impact of redundancy on the dynamic performance of robots

Redundancy is an immense source of freedom in robotic tasks. Positioning and orienting the end of effector of a redundant manipulator can be accomplished with an infinity of postures of the mechanical structure. The result is a substantial increase in the robot's spatial dexterity, which is essential for extending robot applications to complex tasks and cluttered workspaces. However, redundancy has an equally significant impact on the dynamics of robot systems. Redundancy is indeed a great source of dynamic performance in task execution. With an appropriate control strategy, redundancy can significantly improve the dynamic performance of a manipulator. This article presents an extensive study of the dynamic properties of redundant mechanisms and discusses the fundamental control structure needed for increased dynamic performance. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.