Chapter 2
Motion programming concepts in the Robotics API

Having understood the basic concepts of the Robotics API in chapter 1 like accessing devices and sensors and executing Activities, this chapter will teach you how to program motions. Starting with simple joint space motions, this chapter will also introduce the concepts for modeling Cartesian space and motions in Cartesian space. Finally, other forms of movement that rely on sensors or external control inputs will be explained. Sensor based motion, in particular force-based manipulation, is a strength of the Light Weight Robot.

This chapter is structured as follows:

• Moving robots in joint space explains time-efficient motions in joint space.
• Modeling points in Cartesian space introduces the basic concepts for modeling 3-dimensional space with the Robotics API.
• Cartesian motion shows how to let robots move along defined Cartesian paths.
• Motion blending introduces an optimization technique for fluent motions.
• Force-based manipulation explains Robotics API support for this kind of motions.
• Using different controllers of the Light Weight Robot gives insight into the different controller types and their usage.
• Sensor guided motion explains general concepts for motions that rely on sensors.