Computational Robot Dynamics Using Spatial Operators

This paper tells the story of spatial operators in robot dynamics, emphasizing their physical interpretation, while avoiding lengthy mathematical derivations. The spatial operators are rooted in the function space ap-proach to estimation theory developed in the decades that followed the introduction of the Kalman filter. In the mid 1980’s, the authors, who were familiar with the function space approach, recognized the analogy between Kalman filtering and robot dynamics, and be-gan to use this approach on a wide range of multi-body systems of increasing complexity. This paper reviews the spatial operator approach to robot dynamics, and outlines current applications to the modeling, simu-lation and control of space robot dynamics and large molecular structures.