ON THE LOCAL FAULT-TOLERANCE OF A KINEMATICALLY REDUNDANT MANIPULATOR

This work examines the local fault tolerance of a kinematically redund ant manipulator to failures that result in the immobilization of one o r more joints. Immobilizing a joint results in additional singularitie s, which are called locally fault intolerant configurations. These con figurations are characterized by the null space of the manipulator Jac obian. The effect that joint failures have on manipulator dexterity is then investigated. It is shown that the reduction in the manipulator' s dexterity is also related to the null space of the manipulator Jacob ian. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.