A Note on Inverse Kinematics of Hybrid Actuation Robots for Path Design Problems

Hybrid actuation robotic systems are mechanical systems that contain both servomotors and constant-velocity (CV) motors. Due to this nature of hybrid actuation, design of hybrid actuation robots is governed by both mechanism and robot design theories and methodologies. For instance, the path generation problem in mechanism design may take advantage of the effect of the servomotor for its real-time adjusting function, for which inverse kinematics needs to be established on the servomotor. In this paper, we first generalize four types of path design problems. We then present a general formulation of inverse kinematics for a five-bar hybrid actuation robot and compare two specific approaches to inverse kinematics in the literature in terms of of their computation and suitability to the path design of hybrid actuation robots. Finally, we extend the result for the five-bar hybrid actuation robot to a general hybrid actuation robot.