Abstract
A redundant serial manipulator inverse position kinematic mapping is employed to define a new manipulator operational space differentiable manifold and an associated system of well posed operational space differential equations of manipulator dynamics. A review of deficiencies in the conventional generalized inverse velocity approach to manipulator redundancy resolution and a numerical example show that the conventional approach is incompatible with kinematics of redundant serial manipulators. The inverse position kinematic mapping presented is shown to define a differentiable manifold that is parameterized by either input or operational space coordinates. Differentiation of the inverse position mapping yields an inverse velocity mapping that is a total differential, in contrast with generalized inverse velocity mappings, hence avoiding the deficiencies identified. A second differentiation yields an inverse acceleration mapping that is used, without ad-hoc derivation, to obtain well posed operational space ordinary differential equations of redundant manipulator dynamics that are equivalent to the equations of multibody dynamics.