A Polynomial Formulation of Inverse Kinematics of Rolling Contact

Rolling contact has been used by robotic devices to drive between configurations. The degrees of freedom (DOFs) of rolling contact pairs can be one, two, or three, depending on the geometry of the objects. This paper aimed to derive three kinematic inputs required for the moving object to follow a trajectory described by its velocity profile when the moving object has three rotational DOFs and thus can rotate about any axis through the contact point with respect to the fixed object. We obtained three contact equations in the form of a system of three nonlinear algebraic equations by applying the curvature theory in differential geometry and simplified the three nonlinear algebraic equations to a univariate polynomial of degree six. Differing from the existing solution that requires solving a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations, this polynomial is suitable for fast and accurate numerical root approximations. The contact equations further revealed the two essential parts of the spin velocity: The induced spin velocity governed by the geometry and the compensatory spin velocity provided externally to realize the desired spin velocity.