An Analytic Approach to Converting POE Parameters Into D–H Parameters for Serial-Link Robots

The Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) model and the product of exponentials (POE) model have been two popular methods for modeling the kinematics of a serial-link robot. While these two models are equivalent in essence, no study has revealed how to convert from the POE model to the D-H model. The conversion enables direct utilization of established algorithms formulated with D-H parameters or compensation of the D-H model after calibration with the POE parameters. It also provides a simpler method to determine the D-H parameters of a robot. For these reasons, this letter proposes an analytic approach to automatically convert a group of POE parameters into the associated D-H parameters. Three lemmas are proved for the derivation of the final algorithm. An implementation of the algorithm in MATLAB is provided as well.