ADVANCES IN ROBOT KINEMATICS Jadran Lenarčič Department of Automatics, Biocybernetics and Robotics Institute Jožef Stefan, Ljubljana, Slovenia jadran.lenarcic@ijs.si Abstract This is a brief overview on the series of international symposia on Advances in Robot Kinematics. The symposia are being organized since 1988 every two years. Bernard Roth is the principal promotor of these symposia and Chairman of the Scientific Committee. Keywords: Advances in Robot Kinematics, kinematics, mechanism, robot 1. Introduction Advances in Robot Kinematics (acronym ARK) is a series of international symposia that focus on the theory and applications of robot kinematics (Featherstone, 1998). Ever since the first symposium, ARK has attracted the most outstanding authors in the area and has managed to create an excellent combination of professionalism and friendly atmosphere. In spite of a strong competition of many international conferences and meetings, ARK has continued to grow in terms of the number of participants and in terms of its scientific impact. ARK has thus contributed to develop a remarkable scientific community in the area. Many important contributions were for the first time presented at these symposia. The contributions of Advances in Robot Kinematics are included in edited books published by two recognized international publishers. The contents of the book can be searched in the ISI database. The symposia run under the patronage of the International Federation for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms. 2. Finding its living space The first ARK was organized by the Institute Jožef Stefan in September 1988 in Ljubljana in the former state of Yugoslavia. The symposium consisted of 20 invited papers and two student papers. The session were: Problems in Robot kinematics, Kinematics of Robot Wrists, Kinematics in Robot Control, New Methods in Robot Kinematics, and Kinematics in Robot Design. The proceedings of the first ARK was published by J. Stefan Institute as a private publication. The principal motivation to organize Advances in Robot Kinematics was to concentrate the activi-
ties in kinematics research around the world because robot kinematics was dispersed in different conferences. Figure 1. Proceedings of ARK 1988 and Springer s book of ARK 1990 The second symposium took place in September 1990 in Linz (Austria). It was organized by the Johannes Kepler University of Linz. The symposium was a conjunction of the robot mechanisms community and the community of symbolic computation. An enormous number of papers were submitted but only 53 were accepted for the presentation at the conference. The objective was a single session programme. The sessions were: Modelling and Computation, Analysis and Design, Motion Planning and Control, Inverse Kinematics Calculation, Kinematic Redundancy, Parallel Mechanisms. One year after the conference, Springer-Verlag published and edited book Advances in Robot Kinematics - With Emphasis on Symbolic Computation co-edited by S. Stifter and J. Lenarčič (J.L.). In Linz, the ARK Scientific Committee decided to continue organizing the conferences in the geographic region between Alps and Adriatic. 3. Finding its mission The symposium has clearly found its mission in the following two symposia. In September 1992, ARK was organized in Ferrara (Italy) by the University of Ferrara. As the first time, ARK ran under the patron-
age of IFToMM. In Ferrara, many original results were reported. Hence, Ferrara has created a platform for future ARKs and has posed high standards for its scientific and organizational rank. The sessions were: Motion Planning, Inverse Kinematics, Parallel Manipulators, Mechanism Analysis, Theoretical Kinematics, Walking Machines, Redundant Manipulators, Kinematic and Dynamic Control, Robot Performance Analysis, and Workspace Evaluation. The proceedings was published by Antenna Verde and edited by V. Parenti-Castelli. Figure 2. Proceedings of ARK 1992 and Kluwer s book of ARK 1994 Two years later, in June 1994, ARK came back to Ljubljana, Slovenia. It was organized by the Institute Jožef Stefan. The symposium took place in the jazz club Cankarjev dom. This ARK was in many senses a continuation of the Ferrara event. The mission and the quality of contributions were now set. The sessions were: Workspace and Trajectory Analysis, Computational Geometry in Kinematics, Kinematic Errors and Calibration, Kinematics of Mobile Robots, Kinematic Performance, Kinematics and Control, Force and Elasticity Analysis, Inverse Kinematics, Kinematic Design, Kinematic Analysis, Parallel Manipulators, and Task and Motion Planning. For the first time, Kluwer Academic Publishers published the proceedings in an edited book format that was distributed at the conference. Each contribution was rigorously reviewed by two or three independent reviewers. This has become a standard for all future symposia. The book entitled Advances in Robot
Kinematics and Computational Geometry was co-edited by J.L. and B. Ravani. 4. Youthfulness ARK 1996 took place in the ancient Piran on the Slovenian Adriatic coast. The organizer was the Institute Joz ef Stefan. 45 papers were presented in the following sessions: Control and Optimization, Performance, Workspace and Trajectory Analysis, Modelling and Computation, Analysis and Simulation, Performance of Parallel Mechanisms and Analysis of Parallel mechanisms. For the first time, topics on parallel mechanisms prevailed clearly showing the significance of this emerging research area. As the matter of fact, ARK series has contributed very important results in the theory of parallel mechanisms. The book entitled Recent Advances in Robot Kinematics was published by Kluwer and co-edited by J.L. and V. Parenti-Castelli. Figure 3. Kluwer s books of ARK 1996 and ARK 1998 In 1998, ARK took place in the charming Austrian village of Strobl on the coast of Wolfgangsee near Salzburg. The symposium was organized by the Institute of Applied Geometry, Montan University, Leoben. The symposium included 58 presentations organized in the following sessions: Kinematics of Parallel Robots, Direct Analysis and Design of Parallel Robots, Control and design, Basic Kinematics, Application of Screw Theory, Special Methods in Kinematic Analysis, Isotropy versus Singu-
larity, and Biorobotics. The most recognizable item of the conference was the white-blue umbrella which is still now the conference mascot. The book entitled Advances in Robot Kinematics: Analysis and Control was published by Kluwer and co-edited by J.L. and M.L. Husty. 5. Maturity In all these years, ARK has gathered a distinct community of researchers in the field of robot mechanisms. In 2000, it was decided to have ARK n Ljubljana but it was later taken to Piran. The symposium was organized by the Institute Jožef Stefan. The opening session took place in a fine art gallery. The symposium is remembered by the beach volley tournament. The winner was the team of arkists that have attended all symposia since 1988: B. Roth, J. Angeles, B. Siciliano, V. Parenti-Castelli, M.M. Stanišić, O. Khatib, and J. Lenarčič. The sessions in ARK 2000 were: Methods in Kinematics, Kinematic Synthesis, Force analysis, Kinematic Redundancy, Parallel Mechanisms and Workspace Analysis, Analysis and Applications of Parallel Mechanisms, and Parallel Mechanisms and Screw Algebra. The book Advances in Robot Kinematics was again published by Kluwer and co-edited by J.L. and M.M. Stanišić. Figure 4. Kluwer s books of ARK 2000 and ARK 2002
In 2002, ARK took place in Spain, far from home. It was organized in a small village Caldes de Malavella near Barcelona. The organizer was the Institute of Industrial Robotics from Barcelona and ARK was thus enriched by the charming Catalan hospitality and enviable tradition. 53 articles were distributed in the following sessions: Performance Evaluation, Design and Control of Special-Type Mechanisms, Redundancy, Singularity, and Self-Motion, Methods in Kinematics, Kinematics Design, Kinematic Analysis, and Synthesis of Mechanisms and Motion. The title of the book was Advances in Robot Kinematics, Theory and Applications and was co-edited by J.L. and F. Thomas. 6. Acknowledgements Advances in Robot Kinematics would not have become ARK without the presence, help and support of Bernard Roth. References Featherstone, R. (1998), Book Review, Int. J. Robotics Research, vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 1126.