of five- and six-degree-of-freedom manipulators. Fast oneand two-dimensional numerical techniques for solving fiveand six-DOF arms of arbitrary geometry are developed. These new methods provide a large reduction in computational complexity and can be easily implemented in real-time applications. Another contribution of this work is a classification of robot geometries in terms of inverse kinematic complexity. Some new sufficient structural conditions for the possibility of closed-form solutions for five- and six-DOF robot manipulators are described. In the case of six-DOF arms, structural conditions for the applicability of a one-dimensional iterative technique are also provided. Finally, in the example applications of the techniques presented here, we describe a six-degree-of freedom manipulator capable of achieving a particular endeffector pose in sixteen distinct configurations.


viii

..