A Beginner's Guide to 6-D Vectors (Part 2) [Tutorial]

Spatial vectors are six-dimensional (6-D) vectors that describe the motions of rigid bodies and the forces acting upon them. In Part 1, we saw how spatial vectors can simplify the process of expressing and analyzing the dynamics of a simple rigid-body system. In this tutorial, we shall examine the application of spatial vectors to various problems in robot kinematics and dynamics. To demonstrate that spatial vectors are both a tool for analysis and a tool for computation, we shall consider both the mathematical solution of a problem and the computer code to calculate the answer.